Summer of 84

The 1980s has been back for a decade now, and frankly, I’m starting to wonder if the actual 1980s lasted this long. By the time Summer of 84 hit the festival circuit in 2018, we were already drowning in synth-wave aesthetics and "kids on bikes" nostalgia, thanks to the double-tap of Stranger Things and the IT remake. It’s easy to look at the poster for this film—four boys, walkie-talkies, suburban shadows—and assume you’re getting a warm, fuzzy tribute to Amblin-era wonder. But the directing trio known as RKSS (François Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell, and Anouk Whissell) isn't interested in your childhood comfort. They want to set it on fire and leave it in a ditch.

I watched this for the first time on a humid Tuesday evening while a fly kept buzzing incessantly against my window screen. That repetitive, trapped sound actually ended up being the perfect percussion for a movie that spends eighty minutes pretending to be a mystery and ten minutes becoming a nightmare.

The Neighborhood Watch from Hell

The setup is classic neighborhood sleuthing. Graham Verchere plays Davey, a conspiracy-minded paperboy who is convinced his neighbor, the seemingly perfect police officer Wayne Mackey (Rich Sommer), is the "Cape May Killer" responsible for several missing boys. Davey enlists his three best friends—the rebellious "Eats" (Judah Lewis), the nerdy Curtis (Cory Gruter-Andrew), and the heavy-set Woody (Caleb Emery)—to spend their summer spying on the man next door.

For a good chunk of the runtime, it plays out like The 'Burbs meets Rear Window for the Gen Z-playing-Millennial crowd. We get the usual hijinks: sneaking into basements, hiding in bushes, and a subplot involving the "hot girl next door," Nikki (Tiera Skovbye), that feels a little too much like a checkbox on a nostalgia list. However, Rich Sommer is the secret weapon here. Known mostly as the lovably pathetic Harry Crane from Mad Men, Sommer uses his inherent "nice guy" energy to create something truly oily. He’s helpful, he’s civic-minded, and he’s just creepy enough that you wonder if you’re the one being a jerk for suspecting him.

Subverting the Nostalgia Trap

In the current era of "Legacy Sequels" and IP-driven comfort food, Summer of 84 feels like a bit of a Trojan horse. It uses the visual language of 2010s nostalgia—the neon-soaked synth score by Le Matos, the grainy cinematography, the retro outfits—to lure you into a false sense of security. But whereas Stranger Things usually ends with a hug and a bowl of Eggos, this film has a much meaner streak.

The directors, who previously gave us the hyper-violent cult hit Turbo Kid, show a lot of restraint here, right up until they don't. The film was made for a lean $1.5 million, and you can see that indie grit in the way it prioritizes atmosphere over big-budget set pieces. They deliberately weaponize our love for the 80s to make the eventual violence feel like a betrayal. It’s a smart move in a landscape where horror is often either too "elevated" (slow-burn grief metaphors) or too "franchise-y" (endless jump scares). This is just a grim, effective thriller that remembers that serial killers aren't monsters from the Upside Down—they’re guys who help you move your lawnmower.

Practical Creepiness and Low-Budget Hustle

What I really appreciated about the production was the lack of CGI interference. When the tension finally snaps, the horror feels tactile and physical. There’s a specific scene involving a crawlspace that made me physically recoil, mostly because it looked like a place that actually smelled like damp dirt and old sweat.

The film didn't make much of a dent at the box office—taking in a measly $42,027—but that’s the 2018 streaming-era story in a nutshell. It was a "day-and-date" release, meaning it hit VOD the same time it hit theaters, essentially signaling that its real home was on your couch. It’s a shame, because the synth-heavy sound design probably would have rattled some teeth in a proper theater.

One of my favorite bits of trivia is that the script by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith actually sat around for years because people thought it was too similar to The Goonies. It wasn't until the "kids on bikes" subgenre became a massive commercial force again that they got the green light. Ironically, they used that trend to deconstruct the very idea that being a kid in the 80s was a grand adventure. As the tagline says, every serial killer lives next door to someone, and this movie is a firm middle finger to the idea that childhood innocence protects you from the real world.

Summer of 84 is a slow burn that might test the patience of viewers looking for Scream-style pacing, but the payoff is genuinely haunting. It manages to be a critique of nostalgia while wearing its skin, which is no small feat in today’s saturated market. If you can handle an ending that feels like a gut punch delivered by a neighbor you once trusted, it’s a trip worth taking. Just make sure your doors are locked before the credits roll.

The film serves as a grim reminder that the "good old days" were only good if you survived them. It’s one of those indie gems that didn't need a massive franchise budget to leave a mark, proving that sometimes a basement and a suspicious neighbor are all you need for a bad time. Catch it on a dark night, ideally when your own neighbors are being a little too quiet.