Summer Of 84 Sequel Updates: Release, Story, Will It Happen?
Will there be a Summer Of 84 sequel? Canadian horror Summer Of 84 was the screenwriting debut of Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith and took the indie film circuit by storm after its premiere at Sundance Film Festival in 2018. The movie was directed by filmmaking collective RKSS Films (AKA François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell) and – like their 2015 feature debut Turbo Kid – is a retro-tastic homage to the 1980s.
Set in mid-80s suburban Oregon, Summer Of 84 follows a quartet of teenage pals – Davey (Graham Verchere), Tommy (Judah Lewis, The Babysitter), Dale (Caleb Emery) and Curtis (Cory Gruter-Andrew) – as they try to unmask the identity of a serial killer dubbed the Cape May Slayer who has been offing teenage boys in their area for a decade. When Davey suspects his neighbor and local police officer Wayne Mackey (Rich Sommer, Mad Men) is the man behind the murders, he leads his friends on an investigation to gather incriminating evidence against the potential psychopath.
Summer Of 84 was a hit among horror fans and drew favorable comparisons to other teen-focused, nostalgic horror properties like Stranger Things and It. Since the movie was released, the horror community has wondered whether a Summer Of 84 sequel is on the cards. Some fans have even suggested a premise and title for a follow-up – Summer Of 94, with the action picking up with Davey and his friends a decade after their ordeal. But are there actually any plans for a Summer Of 84 sequel? Here’s what we know.
Rather than wrapping things up with a nice bow, Summer Of 84 ended on a grim note that saw the killer spare Davey’s life but murder one of his friends before escaping and leaving Davey to deal with the psychological fallout. The final scene saw Davey reading a newspaper with a headline declaring the Cape May Slayer was still at large, and this ending certainly leaves the door open for a Summer Of 84 sequel
While RKSS have stated they’d be open to making a Summer Of 84 sequel if the script was up to scratch, they also feel a follow-up could cheapen the movie’s unsettling ending. In an interview with Film School Rejects, Yoann-Karl Whissell stated:
“I think even though it would be easy to do a sequel, I don’t think personally it wouldn’t be the same. You can’t recapture what we’ve done with the first one and I think it would rob people of what we went for. It would be cheating.”
While a Summer Of 84 sequel doesn’t currently look likely, both its directors and writers have interesting projects in the pipeline. RKSS is working on a sequel to 2015's Turbo Kid and though their feature debut wasn’t a horror film, it did boast plenty of gore which the follow-up presumably will too. Likewise, Summer Of 84 screenwriters Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith are penning and directing a film titled The Knocking that promises to be a mix of horror, mystery and romance.