In two decades at Variety, I have reviewed precious few slasher movies. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t take much pleasure in what Roger Ebert called “dead teenager movies” — and yet, for some reason, this week I am writing about three. The clearest explanation I can point to is the fact that, at a time of considerable economic uncertainty in the film industry, horror movies are performing better than ever: They’re cheap, they’re profitable and they consistently draw audiences without the cost of a massive marketing campaign.

Neon has been smart with “Hell of a Summer,” a summer camp slasher comedy the genre-savvy distributor picked up late last summer, nearly a year after it premiered in Midnight Madness at the Toronto Film Festival. The movie’s hella derivative, but still quite entertaining, with an appealing cast and memorable characters (especially “Thelma” star Fred Hechinger as a 24-year-old...

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