Cruel Summer (2021)

A group of college students steal the key to a house for sale so they can have a murder mystery weekend. They even print up invitations in advance. Since the theme is the 80’s, Heather insists they leave their phones at home, but the others think they need one in case of an emergency. Heather’s not the brightest bulb so she says no.

Caretaker Vince is surprised to see kids at the empty house, but he buy’s their story of being the owner’s niece.  He tells them the only other people around are mechanic Gunnar and nosy neighbor Bill.  You’d think the kids would be discreet since they have no right to be in the house, but they’re noisy enough to bother Bill.

If you’re wondering who the murderer is, they make no secret about it.  When Gunnar gets out of work, he kills a guy whose car broke down. Then he kills a father and daughter on a walk, a couple who ran out of gas, and Bill. After this, he heads towards the partying kids and the cops investigating the noise complaints.  There’s a lot of missing flyers up in town so apparently he does this often. 

No one has any self preservation.  They don’t fight back and only one victim tries to get away. When Gunnar walks onto the porch, Doug thinks it’s Robert wearing a mask which makes no sense.  Robert is thin and tall with shoulder length hair.  Gunnar is fat, the same height as Doug and has a crew cut.

The characters spend a lot of time complaining.   The cops complain about Bill calling them.  The patrol officers complain about having to investigate. The couple complains about running out of gas.  The neighbor complains about the noise. The kids complain about Bill and Victor.   It never ends. 

It’s hard to feel any sympathy for the kids. They’re guilty of breaking and entering, plus when Barb and Heather are looking for Victor, they go inside his unlocked home, go through his stuff, and Barb wants to steal some of it.  These kids are jerks.

Ridiculous dialogue

I heard a ruckus. Hello? There’s a ruckus going on.

Felisha: Did you fall in?

Doug: I can assure you that when I’m done you’ll be the second.

The 80s party with generic clothing that doesn’t scream 80s

A cop has disappeared? Be wary of this town

This clothing would pass for 70s

Who saves only the headlines of articles?

Why did Heather’s dad freak out when he saw this?  Did 
 he know they were breaking into the house to have a party?

They’d be unable to use this as a slingshot with the drawer open