It’s the summer of 1984 and Davey Armstrong (Graham Verchere) is a fan of conspiracy theories. The walls of his bedroom are plastered with articles about UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and alien abductions. When a serial killer begins hunting down young boys in his small town, he suspects his next door neighbor, Mackey (Rich Sommer), might be the culprit. Convincing his friends to help him look for evidence is his first obstacle. Keeping his hormones in check around Nikki (Tiera Skovbye), his former babysitter, is the second.
With the success of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the timing for a movie like Summer of ’84 is perfect. It’s difficult not to compare the two because they’re very similar. Both feature a group of kids on bicycles trying to solve a big mystery in their small town. Both feature parents that can’t be trusted to believe that the kids have discovered something shocking right under their noses. And both feature nostalgic discussions about the popular culture of the time and have synth-heavy musical scores that deliberately attempt to recreate the atmosphere of movies that were released back then.
Where the two differ is that Stranger Things has elements of science fiction, the supernatural, and horror. Summer of ’84 is a straight-up mystery/horror movie with no aspirations to include anything otherworldly. As a result, the twists and surprises are a lot more grounded in reality.
Directors Anouk Whissell, François Simard, and Yoann-Karl Whissell do an excellent job keeping things tense and well-paced. The script by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith keeps the conversations between the teenagers believably immature. There are a reasonable amount of nostalgic references but it never feels like the script throws them in just to acknowledge them. I felt that the time period served to eliminate plot devices like cell phones and the Internet more so than anything else. (For example, when the kids do some research, they consult a set of encyclopedias and microfiche rather than Google.)
If the film has a fault, it’s that the characters aren’t very well-drawn beyond Davey. Each of Davey’s friends appears to be an amalgam of stereotypes. There’s Tommy (Judah Lewis), who’s the bad boy but is also sensitive and from a bad home. Woody (Caleb Emery) is the fat kid who is also the loyal friend. Faraday (Cory Grüter-Andrew) is the nerdy one but he doesn’t seem that smart. They don’t seem to have a lot in common other than their age, so it’s difficult to believe that they’d all agree to take part in a potentially dangerous caper together. For a film that builds a foundation on their camaraderie, this makes things a bit rickety.
That aside, Summer of ’84 is a decent enough diversion for those looking to watch something tense and scary but not wanting a brutal slasher film or supernatural-based horror. And, if you like Stranger Things, this might hold you over until the next season.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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