Summer of 84 (2018)
Directed by Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Fauxback movies have been somewhat of a crazy as of late. The Final Girls, Stranger Things, Everything Sucks, GLOW, seems like a lot of movies and tv shows are based in the 80s or 90s and people can’t get enough of them. I’m kind of included in that, when they’re done well they are a lot of fun. I was looking for a movie to watch the other night on Amazon Prime and the poster for this really caught my attention, so I read the synopsis and thought it had potential so I rented it.
Summer of 84 centers around a 15 year old boy named Davey and his friends: Woody, Eats, and Curtis as they spy on Davey’s police officer neighbor. Davey believes that his neighbor Mr. Mackey is actually a serial killer that has been terrorizing their small town in Oregon. Quickly Davey becomes obsessed and he and his friends are really starting to find some answers, but Mackey has an answer for everything. Will they expose the crooked policeman or will their hard work end up being for nothing?
The acting is pretty solid for a cast of mostly younger teens. I can’t really find a weak link in the group, if I had to pick one it would be Woody, aka the stereotypical fat kid. He’s kind of bland, but maybe that’s the point, this is after all…a throwback to the 80s, which was chock full of clichés. Mr. Mackey is played by Rich Sommer probably best known as Harry Crane on Mad Men. I remember him from The Office as Pam’s friend in college, but man that was a small role, but fuck the Office is great lol.
The music is very much of the period. Full on “futuristic” synth sounds and atmospheric drones set the mood for each scene. It is very reminiscent of Stranger Things. In fact, the movie as a whole really reminds me of Stranger Things aside from not having a SciFi element. I would say the music in Stranger Things is better, but this movie has a lower budget than Stranger Things. Sometimes I forget this movie is suppose to be based in the 80s. Yeah there are some 80s songs, like “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama but it just doesn’t have that 80s feel, you know what I mean? Maybe I just watch too many 80s movies?
The special effects are minimal but impactful. There is a throat slitting scene towards the end that really left an impression on me, it was intense to say the least and I didn’t see it coming. Not much to talk about in the way of kills and gore, as there isn’t much in the movie of either. The cinematography is pretty good for such a low budget movie. The framing wasn’t anything incredible, but it wasn’t typical and kept some talking scenes interesting. The night scenes were really good, there was light but not too bright and thank god it wasn’t pitch black like some movies of the genre fall prey to.
Summer of 84 was a good watch, wasn’t great but it was effective. I enjoyed it and it moved along at a good pace. Running at 105 minutes it didn’t really have any moments that dragged and it wasn’t rushed. The movie takes a super dark turn in the last 20 minutes, so it almost feels like two movies. The ending was alright, it was suspenseful and unnerving but I honestly expected more from this. For something off the beaten path it is definitely worth a watch, and if you enjoy Stranger Things and IT, I would suggest it. My grade for Summer of 84 is a B. It surprised me with it’s solid acting and quality cinematography but the tonal shift at the end really threw me off and I actually thought it was over right before the shift.
