Back in November 2015 we spoke to director Phill Escott about his forthcoming Brit chiller Cruel Summer. Well Phill has just shared the finished movie and it is every bit as good as the trailer promised.
Cruel Summer is the story of one weekend in the lives of three teenagers from a no hope sink estate somewhere in England. Nick (Danny Miller) is pissed off because he has just been chucked by his girlfriend Lisa, so he goes to see Julia (Natalie Martins). Now Julia has a bit of a unrecipriocated thing for Nick and tells him that Lisa had been shagging Danny a boy from her school who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Rather than driving Nick into her arms, Nick sets out for Danny’s blood in a psychotic fury.
Stopping only to collect Calvin (Reece Douglas) and shoplift some vodka, Nick and Julia discover that Danny (Richard Pawulski) is camping by a local lake as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award and the scene is set for an ugly confrontation.
Cruel Summer is anything but a comfortable ride, the depiction of life amongst the no-hope generation who have been deprived of jobs and further education opportunities in austerity Britain is frighteningly accurate. Nick is obviously a psycho, but he is driven to carry out the attack on Danny by Julia’s underhand scheming and once his blood is up there is nothing his mates can say or are willing to do to stop him.
Cruel Summer is a beautifully shot and intelligently scripted movie that will hold your attention throughout. Performances by each of the young cast are intense and visceral, covering al range of emotions from bored ennui to psychotic rage, impotent fury and hopeless despair.
Intense, brutal and thought-provoking I give Cruel Summer a 666/666
The Horror Hothouse 
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