If you haven’t picked up on the hottest trend in film and TV right now, then you may be living under a rock. Of course, we're talking about the '80s Revival, a movement seemingly spurred by the success of Stranger Things. In reality, however, the '80s Revival may just be the sign of a new wave of filmmakers coming to fruition in the masses.
'80s babies who are looking to re-live their childhood on the big screen are having their moment at just the right time. They have an eager audience at their disposal and an even more eager group of producers looking for projects. Many movies of the revival deal with similar themes. You can usually bet that a group of suburban children will encounter some sort of supernatural force then band together to defeat it.
Summer of 84 puts a spin on the trend, keeping many of the Stand By Me vibes, but committing to an antagonist who's more grounded in reality. In the film, a group of kids begins to suspect that their neighbor is, in fact, a serial killer. As a result, the kids spend their summer gathering clues and spying on him to prove he’s responsible for the death of several other teens in the neighborhood.
Summer of 84 is directed by the filmmaking trio that made Turbo Kid, which first started off as a short, before being picked up and greenlit for a feature. No Film School's Jon Fusco sat down with the directing trio at Sundance and talked about how they used the '80s Revival to their advantage to strike while the iron was hot.
For more, see our ongoing list of coverage of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
