Reviewed By: Jay Andrews-Tracy

Cruel Summer is a British movie that has a good storyline, and also a kind of powerful message about bullying. It is not a horror movie at all, but it is very suspenseful, and does have its times that build up into a grand finale. The film is about an autistic boy Danny (Richard Pawulski) , who wants to go on a camping trip by himself, and of course he has parents that are caring and loving and worry about him going on this trip.

The story goes, of rumors started about Danny, by Nicholas and was spread to a group of people who end up finding out that he is camping for Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, and the trouble starts from there.  The criminals (the ones who did the killing) are not the brightest in the world, Calvin (Reece Douglas), Julia (Natalie Martins), and Nicholas (Danny Miller).

The criminals went to the boy Danny’s parents’ house to try to find out his location. They were very willing to give out the information not knowing who these people were or why they wanted to get a hold of their son.  I did however think that would be weird, knowing that their son is camping to release stress that he has in his life, and to calm himself down.

The movie is based on a true story, from what I can tell, from the website telegraph.co.uk, there is a boy named Terry Hurst. Terry Hurst was a student at Castle College, Sheffield, and was involved with the church. Detective Inspector Tom Whiteley, who worked on the investigation, said: “He was looked upon as a Good Samaritan.”

This movie is very powerful. Sometimes it is hard to watch because of the situation, and what the movie is based upon since it is said to be a true story.  The actors deliver a genius performance, and I am sure it was tough for them to follow the parts that they had to portray.

I would have seen this movie in the theater if it had gotten a world wide release; it was released on DVD and VOD in February 2018. I recommend this movie to people who like this type of dramatization. It is not traditional horror, but horror of what the kid who got murder’s had to go through. This movie also replicates how people can get bullied, and why it needs to stop and how it can be taken too far with the bullying.