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In Defense of SUMMER OF ’84, A Bold Punctuation To The Triteness Of 80’s Nostalgia

In Defense of SUMMER OF ’84, A Bold Punctuation To The Triteness Of 80’s Nostalgia

In Defense of SUMMER OF '84, A Bold Punctuation To The Triteness Of 80’s Nostalgia

As the pendulum of the 30-year cycle continues to strike the rose-tinted neon lights of the 1980’s with great force, it’s revealing to look back on the current of changes that occurred in the decade which altered the United States’ social fabric. Television outgrew its infancy and cable introduced the 24-hour news cycle to those who could afford it – which, by then, comprised of more than the comfortably affluent to include the working class household. Serial killers on the loose; the premiere of Miami Vice; “Thriller”: It was all on TV. In 1984, the 50th presidential election saw Ronald Reagan best Walter Mondal, putting hopes of a female Vice President in the form of Geraldine Ferraro to bed while giving Reaganomics another 4 years to widen the wealth gap.

And, in the coastal town of Ipswich, MA, Matt Leslie, half of the screenwriting team behind the independent horror film Summer of ’84, turned 4 years old. He may not remember partisan barking matches over the effects of trickle-down economics or the day they captured the Beauty Queen Killer, but the string of home robberies that plagued his neighborhood is crystal clear. The stars align, as they say.

A victim of circumstance

Summer of ’84, which Leslie wrote with longtime friend and screenwriting partner Stephen J. Smith, is a unique film not only in content (though, it is one of the year’s sneakiest work of genre excellence) but in circumstance too, rolling out with a lowkey release in the spirit of the midnight movie: in select theaters, exclusively at night, with many screens beginning at midnight. But it was unduly left in the dark by many, save for genre fans, after its release.

Chief among the reasons why Summer of ‘84’s initial reception was unspectacular was a supposed overreliance on 80’s nostalgia in lieu of substance, which drew tired comparisons to Stranger Things – despite Leslie and Smith having penned it 2 years before Netflix’s sleeper hit.

It’s a double-edged sword, however: they’re victims of circumstance to a set of similar ideas, but the project, directed by the cerberic Turbo Kid creators, would not have been greenlit if not for the Duffer Brothers series’ immense popularity.

In Defense of SUMMER OF '84, A Bold Punctuation To The Triteness Of 80’s Nostalgia
source: Gunpowder & Sky

Yet where Stranger Things deliberately weaves nostalgia trappings into its plot, the instances of nostalgia in Summer of ’84 are incidental, organic, and direct consequences of setting the film during the year. More importantly: Summer of ’84 uproots and utilizes the associated tropes of the decade, following the prototypical coming-of-age story of a foulmouthed group of suburban boys on a frightening adventure to its most natural and grisly conclusions. This point shines in the last 10 minutes, where the modular plot points and bits of dialogue coalesce to make clear that all that glitters isn’t gold.

Playing with convention

By the year 1984, much of the decade’s mainstream cinematic canon was etched out: Spielberg proved himself an industry giant with his directorial credits on Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, most importantly, E.T. – not to mention his producing credits on Poltergeist and Gremlins. Notwithstanding the influence of Joe Dante and future Spielberg titles like The Goonies, a particular brand of film was carved in the years that followed E.T., defined by a likeable cast of adventure-seeking boys, grave danger, a lesson about youth or something, and the triumph of innocence over the cruelty of the fun-sucking adult world*.

*Sometimes, Corey Feldman gets thrown in the mix.

We see these storytelling elements springing up frequently nowadays, most noticeably in the incorporation of the Duffer Brothers’ own childhood they inject Stranger Things with, as well as the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s It. It’s part of a larger trend of 80’s nostalgia which will soon be consumed by a reverence for the 90’s (see: Mid90s, Super Dark Times, etc.)

In Defense of SUMMER OF '84, A Bold Punctuation To The Triteness Of 80’s Nostalgia
source: Gunpowder & Sky

Part of what feels so refreshing in viewing Summer of ’84 is the way it feels as though it was crafted during the same period as its cinematic predecessors. On the Cold War, one line of dialogue and not one more is spent crystalizing the public perception of its seemingly indefinite lifespan. Similarly, it makes sense that our group of sex-craved 15-year-old boys mention Gremlins, the biggest movie released in June (the month in which Summer of ’84 is set), as a crude punchline.

The darker aspects of the decade often left undiscussed in the media that commemorate it also loom over the film. When Woody (rising young actor Caleb Emery in the most affable performance of the film), one of the boys, returns home from a night out spying on who they suspect is the local serial killer, a tender scene is dedicated to him comforting his single mother. As she lies on the couch, teary eyed and in a drunken languish after a 36-hour shift, the unfortunate realities of the decade pierce the veneer of cheer and excess.

Teen punk Eats (Judah Lewis) and the boys’ collective dream girl, Nikki (Tiera Skovbye), are likewise damaged by broken homes reflective of the 80’s skyrocketing divorce rates. Their cool personalities distract from a family life set ablaze; the trauma is never plainly seen though, only through subtle lines of dialogue are these things suggested.

Spoiler Warning

It’s telling, too, that the film’s villain takes the form of middle-aged police officer Wayne Mackey (Rich Sommer), driven to capture the nostalgia of his 50’s-era youth by murdering teenagers across the fictional coastal towns of Cape May, OR. It’s chilling to rewatch the film and catch him telling Mikey (Graham Verchere) his wish to freeze his adolescence for him under the blood red darkroom light.

Discounting the foul language, Summer of ’84 follows the Spielbergian family friendly adventure until its last act, where Mikey’s suspicion is confirmed that Mackey is in fact the Cape May Killer. What would have ended an otherwise authentic but wholly unspectacular period piece unfurls a bleakly grounded additional 10 minutes. Leslie and Smith subvert the familiar with the depressing but realistic.

Mean-spiritedness never felt so nice

Summer of ’84 was not written with the idea that 80’s nostalgia would boom, nor that we needed a reminder that the decade faired a wealth of darker realities not so frequently reflected in this current fad. But the gutsy, matter-of-fact note the film ends on – which delayed the financing of the film for some time – screeches like a brake on the trend of pictorializing 80’s nostalgia with a bright and shiny façade.

Because if a serial killer really lived next door to a kid from a Spielberg flick, he would have gotten himself and his pals butchered. And with that, the ebullience of the 80’s comes careening to a sobering reminder that life is not like the movies.

Do you think Summer of ’84 leans too much on 80’s nostalgia? Are you sick of the 80’s yet? We’d love to hear your thoughts in comments or on our social medias!

Summer of ’84 is available on VOD here.

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