By now, it feels like there’s a slasher movie for everyone. Pick any topic or setting, and you can probably find a movie about some masked lunatic carving a bloody path through a group of teenagers that uses it. It makes sense, because at its core the slasher genre is incredibly generic. All it needs is a group of snarky teens or young adults, a reasonably well-designed mask or costume, and a killer that won’t stop until every potential victim is dead. Otherwise, the genre is like a blank canvas on which writers and directors can paint whatever they want.

With Hell of a Summer, first time writers/directors Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard seem to have decided that there’s no need for any extra paint, they like the blank canvas just fine. It is as bare bones as a slasher movie can get, following a group of young summer camp counselors as they get picked off one by one by a devil-masked murderer. Some of the characters die, the killers get unmasked, a few campers survive, roll credits. Sure, the characters all have their own personality trait (and for most of them, just the one), but that’s more to make them distinct from one another than to do anything unique or interesting with the premise. The movie doesn’t expect you to remember these characters’ names, so instead it just asks you to worry whether “vegan girl” or “theater guy” is going to bite it next. Beyond that, it can’t be bothered to get you invested.

That’s not to say that any of the actors do a bad job, I think everyone gets as much as they can out of the script. Yet, nobody gets a chance to show off. They’re all one-note, generic archetypes that never deviate from their assigned roles. The lone exception is Bobby, played by Bryk, who acts like a self-absorbed jerk for most of the film but hints at some layers underneath that. We never really explore them, but with these characters it’s refreshing just to think that those layers might exist.

From a production standpoint, there’s not much to comment on or complain about. Like with the plot and characters, Bryk and Wolfhard take no real risks as directors. None of the shots are particularly interesting, while the kills and gore are pretty standard fare. First time watchers of the genre might be shocked once or twice, but long-time slasher fans will have seen it all before.

The one major issue I have is one that isn’t unique to this film, but it’s noticeable, and that’s the lighting. Particularly the outside sequences at night. Like a lot of modern horror movies, Hell of a Summer believes in natural lighting. The problem with that, at least when you are filming in the woods at night, is that it’s dark. It’s difficult to make out what’s going on during some of the scenes, especially when characters are running around outside. I know brighter lights wouldn’t have been realistic for the setting, but it might be worth considering that being able to tell what’s happening in the movie is a little more important than realism.

I can’t say that Hell of a Summer is a bad movie, because it isn’t. It’s meant to be a homage to early slasher films like Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp, and it manages that fine. You will be reminded of those films multiple times, and there is some merit in that. However, I also can’t praise the movie either, because it adds literally nothing to the foundation that those movies built. Forty years after Friday the 13th came out, there’s nothing impressive about essentially making it again. These days, audiences should expect more than a generic cast of characters, dull script, uninspired direction, and an unmemorable killer intent on boring us all to death.