User Reviews

WARNING: LIGHT SPOILERS

On the surface, Dead of Summer is an average slasher show, you got your horror stereotypes, like the final girl, the slutty girl, the black guy, the jock, the gay guy, etc.. And in the Pilot episode until like Episode 3, yeah, it's exactly what you expect. Until it actually starts to actually be good.

One thing about DoS is the how it wants you to believe it's an average slasher movie, when it truly is something great. The same creators of Lost and Once Upon a Time? You know you got good stuff on your hands... Or do you? After watching the Pilot I was sorta confused: "Is this actually what we got?", but I kept watching and I think it was the best decision, because after episodes like 3 or 4, it gets going and suddenly you realize THIS is Dead of Summer.

Have I mentioned the horror stereotypes? Yeah, they start off like them, but the character development is truly amazing for a slasher TV show, in fact, it might be the best character development we have come to expect in slasher.

At Episode 6, we start seeing what DoS is all about: demons, rituals all on a seemingly innocent camp. This is where it gets good, finally you start seeing this seemingly clichéd characters into actual characters with personalities, but by far the best episode on the series is Episode 9, where we get a plot twist that makes so much sense but you still are shocked, and when that happens, you know you got something good.

In conclusion, Dead of Summer is a really good show. Don't let those first episodes and the IMDb rating fool you, it surprised me and the others who watched it along the way. The sad thing is those first episodes, and they don't help the show get a better rating then 7/10. It's a shame, but hopefully, if they renew this, I will certainly watch this. It is a surprise (even though a late one) to discover.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

It's summer 1989. The young camp counselors arrive at Camp Stillwater, Wisconsin run by Deb Carpenter (Elizabeth Mitchell). Amy Hughes is the new one. Carolina 'Cricket' Diaz, Joel Goodso, Blair Ramos, Alex Powell, Jessie Tyler, Drew Reeves, and Jason 'Blotter' Cohen are former campers. Deputy Garrett Sykes and Sheriff Heelan investigate when caretaker Dave turns up dead. There is a mysterious ghost (Tony Todd) haunting the camp.

I have no problem with borrowing from Crystal Lake or calling it homage. The pilot sets it up well. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. The show has it all with the great Tony Todd. The kids are fine and Elizabeth Mitchell has plenty of experience. When the death cult shows up, the show gets muddled. At least, they have the good sense to kill themselves. The low point has to be the bear traps. It may be cool to have bear traps but they don't make sense. It's a TV horror show that is never quite good enough.

Based on episode 1. Cheap frights. Uninspiring story telling. Female lead seems to break down at every tiny little thing, which makes you roll your eyes and ask "seriously? She freaked out at that??!". This has the feel of a low budget B movie where even the props of a dead deer look more plastic the Real Housewives of Hollywood. The chemistry between the actors seems like the only genuine thing in this pilot episode. Unfortunately this is yet another inexperienced amateur director trying to learn by ripping off old 80's camp movies. Probably good for millennials who "like oh my gawd" don't have a clue what good television is.

Think back to every cliché you've ever seen in a horror movie set on a lake and they're all here.

Young, pretty people, at summer camp, on a lake. Throw in a map shaped like the Devil, a creepy janitor, and spooky woods. Couple that with a super annoying lead female with zero gumption and even less likability and you've got the picture. First episode tries to leave the viewer with unanswered questions, but ends up asking 'Why did I even bother?'. The best thing about it is the soundtrack, and even that misses the mark. Don't care a fig about the characters and have no desire whatsoever to watch the next ep.

This show requires some major suspension of disbelief and throwing logic out the window. And not just for the supernatural satanic cult stuff.

These counselors are what 18? 19? At least Cricket and Blair are still in highschool, drinking age in 1989 was 21, and yet they can all just do shots at a bar NEXT TO THE COP and no one cares?

I've worked at summer camps, and I know things were a little more lenient but WHY THE HELL WAS THE CAMP NOT SHUT DOWN way earlier? Why are there only about 10 counselors? What kind of camp staff only reports three days before the kids show up? And they just let Blotter walk back? And Drew?

If you can get past some of the illogical choices, some of the poorly written dialogue, th plot is good. And anxiety inducing. And spooky. Lots of twists and turns. It's cheesy, but entertaining.

The most "politically correct over-the-top" TV show I've ever seen in my life. They've got it all: the slut, the gay guy, the transgender, the drug dealer, the deputy sheriff, the inter-racial relationship, the young guy and old woman relationship, the summer camp, the devil- worshippers... What more could you ask for. It's easily the worst show on television. Easily. The writers are either juvenile fatheads in a room full of dope smoke or geniuses who know exactly what appeals to these hipster-millenials who don't have a clue what the world is about. I watch it for all the wrong reasons, I guess. But it really is a joy to watch. Sort of like watching "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

Considering what DEAD OF SUMMER set out to do -- recreate the 1980s horror movie feeling with a fun summer show that's not meant to be taken too seriously --, I have to say the second half of Season 1 managed to do that, but the first half fell completely flat.

The problem is that the show is set up such that each season focuses on one particular summer and one group of characters. However, each of the main characters gets one episode of flashbacks dedicated to them (think in terms of LOST's first season). There are about 9 such characters and only 10 episodes. You can do the math. It basically means, as soon as you get to know some of the characters, they get killed off. (Not all of them die, but I don't want to spoil too much.) So for me, the question was: Why should I care? What's the point? Why should I get invested in any of the characters (and hence, the story) when I only see their backstory but not much about how they act and make decisions NOW? The reason a show introduces a character's backstory is so we can understand how the characters tick and why they act the way they do and what lessons they learn over time -- but if you kill them off right after spending a lot of time showing their backstory, there won't be much growth. No lessons learned. Nothing memorable for the audience. Furthermore, the first season suffers from some pretty glaring logic flaws. For example, they have all these young children in this summer camp -- but when the killings begin, they just keep going as if nothing happened? What about traumatizing these kids for life? What about their parents -- they're okay with leaving their kids in a camp tainted by death and mysterious events? I'm not buying it.

The second half of the season does much better with regard to the above mentioned problems. For example, when they finally want to evacuate the kids, the evil spirits in the camp try to stop the bus. Or when some of the main characters try to run away from camp, there's some sort of force field preventing them from getting out (I think it's similar to ONCE UPON A TIME -- apparently Kitsis/Horowitz love to borrow from other shows they've been involved with). While these are, of course, supernatural things that require you to suspend your disbelief, they make it much easier to accept that the main characters and all these children are stuck in that camp and have to fight for their lives. Similarly, the pacing of the last few episodes is much better. There's more at stake; the main characters can't trust each other anymore; there's more urgency; and some of the flashbacks reveal some new twists that put everything into a new light.

So, for me, it's 5/10 stars. I watched the first season as it unfolded week after week, and there was too much time in between episodes to ignore all these flaws. If you binge-watch the whole season and don't really think about its (lack of) logic, it might leave a better impression. The last few episodes really showed what the show could have been.

"Dead of Summer" is a supernatural horror show about a group of teens who are all counselors at a summer camp. My first impression of the show was that it was trying to feed off of the success of the recent MTV hit, "Scream". After actually watching the show, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I maintain the idea that the show-runners and writers wanted the same success as "Scream", but what I did not understand was how they could think that this show was a passable substitute. "Dead of Summer" may honestly be the worst show I have ever seen, due to the terrible writing, acting, pacing, and atmosphere. The actors all seemed bored and distant, which is very harmful to a horror show that is supposed to scare you and keep you intrigued. The writing was abysmal, it was as if this was the first script ever written by the writers, and it should be the last. For all I know, maybe this was the writers' first script, that would actually make a lot of sense. Other than the script, the pacing of the show was very weird and hard to keep up with. The show would jump from one scene to the next, with no explanation or time to develop a creepy atmosphere. It felt like the show was more concerned with just progressing to the next plot point then taking the time to actually be scary or entertaining. Not that it really could be though, with such a horrible and laughably bad story (which involved the stupidest death of a character that I have ever seen). This show really does not even deserve a chance. If you're in the mood to watch some teen horror-hijinks, than I heavily recommend Scream, which is a fantastic example of what a show like this should look like. Just please, don't waste your time with this garbage.

Although the show is Cliché, as you watch it it becomes obvious that it is intentional. It's based off old 80 camp movies and it has the good jump scares. If you like those kind of movies it is a good show to watch. Although the scene of the 80's isn't quite captured like it should be, they tell you which era the scene your watching is from due to flashbacks.

I think this show has been executed quite nicely, it has an eerie feel to it whilst watching and makes you want to keep watching. If you've ever been to a summer camp you'll know how creepy it can feel by being in the middle of the woods, which helps you relate to the characters in the show to know how their feeling. The show has twists and turns and I'm excited to see where the show will go in the future.