You can't take an idea that's been done fifty times in the last few years and just do it again with a lower budget, a less appealing cast, a dumber script, and a better score (by Le Matos).Summer of '84 is like the Mormon-cinema version of Stranger Things: derivative, painfully uncool, and joyless, but with unexpectedly competent production.It has an imitation-of-an-imitation-of-an-imitation quality, which is interesting for 20 minutes. (Unfortunately, this movie feels longer than Doctor Zhivago.) If Fright Night was a charming B-movie reimagining of Rear Window, and Disturbia was a ripoff of Fright Night made by people who never bothered to see Rear Window, Summer of 84 is a ripoff of Disturbia made by people who never bothered to see Fright Night.After this movie, Ready Player One, and the dire Hot Summer Nights, the whole 80s nostalgia craze seems to have run Its course. Most of the fond remembrances of mid-80s suburbia seem to be coming from people who were born in 1995, and who are under the impression that John Hughes and Steven Spielberg were capturing the period with documentary realism.On a positive note: this movie left me with deeper respect for superficially similar but smarter and more soulful movies like My Friend Dahmer, and for some of the more innovative recent genre movies like Thelma, Hereditary, Coherence, Berberian Sound Studio, Rubber, and Annihilation.

This was a great movie and I loved every second of it... Growing up I watched lots of movies and tv shows with my favorite movies always being the coming of age classics: "Goonies" and "Stand By Me". Later on in life, I always looked for coming of age movies that could meet my standards. Even with newer movies like "The Edge of Seventeen" (2016) I still wasn't very satisfied. For the first time in a while, I walked away from a movie theatre actually satisfied and my expectations and standards were fully met.If I could sum this movie up in a few words for anyone interested in watching, it would be; A coming of age movie with a similar nostalgic feel of Stand By Me and the Goonies with a thrilling storyline that'll have you on the edge of your seat...

Those of us who have seen the film in festivals know why. It will be released in August. The trailer threads the needle on story and spoilers so if you have only seen the trailer, you have NO IDEA how the story plays out or whether it's good or bad. Except for 80's era and kids (era is critical to the story), it is really NOT at all like Stranger Things. It was written in 2015 ONE YEAR BEFORE Stranger Things and the authors were inspired by The Burbs, Goonies, Stand by Me, and Rear Window -- JUST like Stranger Things and Disturbia writers were. It has an amazing ending that kills Disturbia comparisons. It is fine if you don't like the ACTUAL film to rate it 1/10, but it is pretty trollish to casually and condescendingly kill an indie film's rating before it has been released without even freakin seeing it.

Following Turbo Kid, this 80's drama-horror, is a suspenseful thriller that follows a group of teens uncovering the identity of serial killer moving from town to town kidnapping children. Summer of 84' doesn't leave much to the imagine when it reveals its antagonist 15 minutes within the film.