If you remember how it felt to be free and independent from authority during your high school summer days, especially when trying to avoid an active serial killer on the prowl…then The Summer We Died is a fun nostalgic flashback.  

Suppose we took the original Scream, added a splash of The Summer of Sam and dabbled that with the rebellious youth of Kids…you could easily see the birth of this fresh new glimpse of retribution unfold within the suburbs of Las Vegas amongst teens trying to test the limits of their independence.  

Colorfully named characters M, Darlin’ and Babygirl are skater chicks, excited to celebrate their freedom through long nights out partying against the wishes of their families who are completely panicked by their rebellion. You see, there is a city-wide curfew due to the Moonlight Killer – a masked figure baring a hunting knife, and a grudge who appears out of the darkness to hunt down (mostly) fellow classmates in the most gruesome and gory manner.

Each of the girls’ have extreme homestead issues…alcoholic dads, overprotective moms, and control assertions which go to battle against the uncontrollable teenager during the height of defiance. It’s an obvious loss each time and the girls basically go wild. A typical ‘kids will be kids’ who weren’t about to give up their summer.  
 
Although the actors will sometimes give off the appearance of being older than their character, the premise of adolescence still reigns when they risk breaking curfew and becoming prey to the lurking slasher – which doesn’t seem to have as much concern to their safety as much as it does within the parental community. The volatile relationships are impacted each time the girls are told no with the same angst as we felt during the transition from kid to adult. And The Summer We Died captures this resistance in a very raw and gritty manner. As the theme goes, “This was our summer, and nobody was going to ruin it”. Not even a brutal serial killer!