Hell of a Summer stars Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Pardis Saremi spoke to ComingSoon about the new horror movie. The trio discussed their characters, their love of horror, and more. Distributed by Neon, it is now playing in theaters.

“Hell of a Summer follows 24-year-old camp counselor Jason Hochberg (Hechinger), who arrives at Camp Pineway thinking his biggest problem is that he feels out of touch with his teenage co-workers. What he doesn’t know is that a masked killer is lurking on the campgrounds, brutally picking counselors off one by one,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Abby, your character gets to have some fun with archery in the film. There are some fun archery scenes, and archery isn’t easy. How is it getting used to handling a bow? There’s some great payoff to that.

Abby Quinn: I don’t know if I ever got used to it. There was one really good take, and then I could never do it again. And I don’t even think that they got that . I didn’t really perfect it, but I loved the feeling of having it. I felt very strong, very powerful, but I would love to take lessons retroactively and I probably should have before.

D’Pharaoh, your character, Mike, is the life of the party. He’s very charismatic. You’ve got a great energy in your interviews and in real life, but how is it bringing that energy to the film? Because every scene you’re in, there’s just like a little bit more life to it.

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai: Thank you, [laughs]. That’s a very nice thing to say. Thank you. I mean, I don’t know, man, I didn’t even know what I was doing half the time when I was over there. It felt like a summer camp on and off since I don’t even know when it was action or cut or anything in between. So I was just chilling and I was just being mean. But then Mike’s also a dick and I’m not really that much of a dick. So like, I’m also acting.

Is it fun being a dick when you’re a nice guy?

Woon-A-Tai: It’s actually really not, though. Like you would think, right? Like, “Oh, I’m gonna chew you out, and you can’t say [anything] about it.” No, it’s actually really not that fun. I don’t really like yelling at people, you know, or like whatever you see in the film I do. I don’t really like any of that, you know? But it’s fun, though. I’ll play it. I’ll be that.

Pardis, Hell of a Summer felt like a breakout role for you, and this film has so many wonderful actors. It’s such a great ensemble. What did it mean for you to be part of this cast? Because it just seems like one of those movies that’s gonna age like fine wine. You’re gonna look at this movie in 20 years and be like, “Wow, all those people were in it.”

Pardis Saremi: I hope so. For me, the movie is honestly just the memories that we made on set. And it sounds so corny, but it really is like it’s like that. When I think of the movie, I just think of our experience filming it. Like we all were living together, having a summer camp experience, shooting a summer camp movie. Like it was so immersive and we were like basically off the grid, so it was, yeah, you were just like fully in it.

Abby, I wanted to ask you about working with Fred Hechinger because you guys have some really great scenes together. What really stands out about him as a scene partner?

Quinn: Oh, everything. He’s, like, the best. I think we can all attest. He’s just the kindest, sweetest, funniest person ever. And yeah, I had like the most fun and also we kind of got to do a fun thing of having more serious scenes together. And then also it was a balance of that and then comedy and I just feel like he’s incredible at anything and everything.

So it was the most fun experience ever. Yeah. He was the best. And I loved the dynamic of our characters.

D’Pharaoh, Hell of a Summer is very much a tribute to slasher movies. So I was curious, what are some of your favorite horror movies that you like to watch, especially during spooky season?

Woon-A-Tai: Okay, great question. I don’t know what it was, but I love slashers, you know, and I love the crossovers, right? Like Freddie vs. Jason. Even before these movies came out, I was thinking like, what if Freddy messed that guy up? Like, who would win?

My favorite slasher movies… I remember when I was a kid, straight-up, Insidious. It’s like, you know, nowadays it’s like when I watched it I’m like, “Oh.” But back in the day when I watched it, it didn’t seem that long ago, but I was a kid back then. But like back in the day when I watched, when it first came out, creepy, scary.

I also loved… was that movie we called, we talked about earlier?

Quinn: Talk To Me?

Woon-A-Tai: Talk To Me! I watched that one recently. Holy… I’m a big, also a very big psychological horror guy. You know, I love a classic slasher, don’t get me wrong. If it’s around spooky season, I’ll throw on a good Michael Myers — I throw on a good Halloween, you know what I mean? It’s the classic one old one, don’t get me wrong. But I love a good psychological film that would leave me looking over my shoulder, you know?

Pardis, it’s so wild seeing Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk as directors at their age — so young and talented. What really stood out about working with them? Because it seems like this was a really fun shoot.

Saremi: It was. It made all the difference. I feel like having them be the ones that write it and direct it and them being so young and being actors, like it’s really what made the movie. The two of them were the heart of the movie and everything about them translates through the script. And yeah, they’re so wonderful. They’re so funny. They’re so knowledgeable on the genre. They’re really wonderful filmmakers.

Thanks to Hell of a Summer’s Abby Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and Pardis Saremi for taking the time to talk about the slasher movie.