We watched Summer of 84 on
Shudder, and it was nostalgia-rific. Teenager Davey Armstrong is mired in conspiracy theories and the Weekly World News stories. Davey begins to suspect that a neighboring police officer is a serial killer who targets kids in the Cape May Oregon area (which is made up) called, “The Cape May Slayer. With some help from his friends, Davey begins investigating the perp, which eventually turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Summer of 84 Overview
Summer of 84 was a pretty fun nostalgia trip. This isn’t as crazy or pandering as movies like
Turbo Kid, or
Ready Player One, which seeks to pile on all the nostalgia they can. Instead, this movie takes a close look at a boring old summer turned exciting, aka dangerous. It’s very similar in feel to
Stranger Things. It’s basically a Stranger Things remake of
Rear Window.
https://youtu.be/vkalLfx229o
While it slumps a bit in the middle, it holds up well and is able to pull off a high-quality production. In fact all of the Shudder exclusives I’ve watched so far have been worth my time.
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My Score
7/10
Summer of 84 Spoilers
To me, it’s always impressive when a movie seeks to create a new town that doesn’t exist in real life, and Ipswich, Oregon is no different. I’m a Washingtonian, but I live right next to Oregon and have most of my life, and I was tricked by Summer of 84 into believing that not only Ipswich existed, but it’s geographical location of Cape May existed when it does not. This speaks to the authentic feeling that this movie portrays. It’s authentic in its location, and in the believable characters.
Check Out Our Review of Overlord!
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The sets
were done well, which is always impressive to me in these period piece movies,
even if the period is only the 80’s.
The
soundtrack is pretty much what you would expect it to be with lots of edgy,
synth wave and Kavinsky-esque tracks in the original score.
Let’s take a look at the main character, Davey (played by
Graham Verchere of
The Good Doctor). Davey is the quintessential 80’s movie star character - think Elliot in
E.T. The Extraterrestrial. He’s slight of build, he’s relatable to the every-man, dorks but not jocks, and basically the human equivalent of vanilla ice cream.
Davey’s three friends fill the appropriate roles: you have the nerd, Curtis (played by
Cory Gruter-Andrew), the bad boy Tommy (played by