Splat Summer Scrutinized
Hey all! Welcome to the last post of splat summer! I know fall doesn’t start for another while but I go back to school on Wednesday, so summer’s pretty much over for me. This post is a little different than usual, because it’s about a whole cultural phenomenon - that is, the summer slasher/horror effect. Hope y’all enjoy! Happy reading, stay spooky, call your local politicians, and vote for this year’s Spooky Season Spooktacular theme!
So at this point in time (2025), summer horror has become very much a cultural phenomenon. These past three summers I’d say, social media has been taken over by people planning Summerween parties, spooky summer movie nights, Stranger Things themed summers, summer camp slasher Pinterest mood boards – the list goes on and on. Now, some of this is connected to the current clown horror renaissance, but it’s more than that. It’s about nostalgia, yes, but it’s also about, you guessed it, current cultural tone shifts. So let’s get into it!
The earliest summer starts getting spooky is usually in June, when Summerween parties and plans start popping up and being discussed. This phenomenon is actually really interesting, because we can pinpoint exactly where it started. Alex Hirsch’s masterpiece Gravity Falls, released in 2012 features an episode called Summerween (S1,E12), in which the residents of Gravity Falls celebrate Halloween in June. They carve jack o’ melons and go trick-or-treating, the local TV station puts on a horror movie marathon, and it is celebrated because the townsfolk love Halloween so much they celebrate it twice a year. Summerween falls on the third Saturday in June, and is celebrated by people all over the country. Now, you may be asking why Summerween has suddenly had a boom in popularity, since it originated thirteen years ago. And the thing about that is that the kids who watched Gravity Falls then have grown up now, and are able to use social media, throw their own parties, etc., which they couldn’t do as kids when the idea of Summerween was first planted in their heads. So basically, Summerween got big because spooky kids who watched Gravity Falls grew up and decided to try it, then young adults who didn’t watch Gravity Falls saw it, thought it looked fun, and ran with it.
But the excitement for horror throughout summer doesn’t end after Summerween has passed. In fact, I see more summer horror content on social media in July and August than I do in June. Summer slasher mood boards, cosplays, and the like are huge right now. And the main contributing factor to that is nostalgia. People are getting nostalgic for times they never even lived in, specifically the 80s slasher boom – be glad you weren’t alive then, y’all, it happened because of AIDS – and as such are bringing the movies that came from them back into the public eye. The Lost Boys, Friday the 13th, and Jaws in particular have seen huge boosts in popularity as of late. As has, coincidentally (not), new, nostalgia-based media. Stranger Things is perhaps the best known example of this, but on its own, that could just be a one-off. But Stranger Things isn’t standing on its own. In the past decade or so, nostalgic horror has skyrocketed. New Stephen King adaptations, classic remakes, and even movies that try to emulate styles and sensibilities from that era are as much of a phenomenon right now as superhero movies. Nostalgia-inspired filmmaking is nothing new. People have been making movies roselighting the world they grew up in since people have been making movies. But the thing about nostalgia is that it isn’t real.
That’s not to say that nostalgia isn’t a real emotion - it very much is. But often what we feel nostalgia for isn’t actually the way it was. Let’s take summer slashers for example. There are, truthfully, very few of them in the 80s slasher boom compared to slashers that took place during other times of year. Everyone knows Friday the 13th, which did open the slasher floodgates, but not for the specific subgenre it’s part of. And that shows in current summer slasher stuff on social media, too. Often there’s a Camp Crystal Lake sign, or something from The Burning, or maybe Sleepaway Camp, but then there’s Maxine Minx, or Sadie Sink in Fear Street 1978. The X Trilogy and the Fear Street franchise are meant to invoke 70s and 80s slashers, sure, but they’re more stylistically reminiscent of Stranger Things or Texas Chain Saw than Friday or anything else. They’re almost nostalgic for themselves, for the nostalgia that has so seeped into modern horror. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it needs to be known that the current summer horror boom is much bigger than it was in the 80s. There wasn’t one in the 80s. The modern slasher was invented then, to be split into subgenres that, forty years later, are being dissected and emulated and wished for. And again, while there’s nothing wrong with it, people who are coming into summer horror from Stranger Things season 3, or X, or Fear Street, are likely to be rather disappointed by 80s summer slashers. They’re not quite as neon, or vibey, because there’s not quite anything for them to emulate. They just know they’ve got a machete and some teenagers. If you do want colorful slashers, though, I’d recommend giallo films. Dario Argento’s Suspiria, in particular. But it’s not in summer, so do what you will.
Now, summer slashers aside, spooky movie nights in summer are becoming a more common hangout idea, suggesting a greater cultural inclination towards horror. This should not be a surprise. If you read this blog, you know that’s what’s happening right now. Horror booms happen during times of widespread fear, and that’s also when old horror becomes popular again. Social media is also a large contributor to this. Spooky season hauls and aesthetic posts are getting more people excited for Halloween before October than ever before. “Augtober” is a thing now, and you have social media fall girlies to thank for that. Be grateful. But also, when there are more horror movies coming to theatres, or coming back to theatres for anniversary releases, there are more people watching horror movies that might not have in the first place. And that leads to looking up movies similar to the one they just watched, which leads to an interest in old horror movies…you see where I’m going? A greater cultural appreciation for horror indicates scary times, but also people more willing to watch weird stuff. Maybe as an escape from the scary times, maybe as a way to engage with them better, and maybe a little bit of both. The point is, nostalgia or not, a horror boom is an important cultural phenomenon. The fact that it is specific to summer horror mostly means that the horror that was released at about the start of the boom lead to that kind of thing. Once again, I’m going to bring up Stranger Things. The cultural effect that show had is undeniable, and it, and Gravity Falls are, from what I can tell, the two main contributors to the current interest in summer horror and slashers. Don’t let anyone tell you TV isn’t important, folks. It kickstarts things like this.
Splat summer isn’t just a moment. It’s indicative of a cultural shift towards nostalgia, and films built on that. Even outside of horror, this phenomenon is seen, with VHS filters on Instagram videos, and people raising their kids like it’s the 90s because they think that will help them develop better. The fact that this shift is most prominent in horror means, basically, that people are scared, and looking for ways to deal with that fear. And modern filmmakers are no exception to that rule, which gives us an increase in horror movies being released. But none of this means that you shouldn’t have yourself an epic splat summer however you see fit. Watch Stranger Things, or Gravity Falls, or maybe Friday the 13th or Texas Chain Saw if those are more your speed. Just don’t forget the important place horror has in culture. Horror is art, just as important as any other kind. No matter whether it’s a TV show, a movie, a comic, or something that’s almost a spoof of itself but not quite. Scary shit is vital to the cultural biome, as are the fall girlies on Instagram keeping the splat summer ball rolling. And, I think, both deserve a little more respect than they are currently given.
Thanks for reading, y’all! We’ll be back to non-splat summer programming in two weeks, and the Spooky Season Spooktacular is just a little over a month away! Please go vote for the theme on my Instagram @blaisebalas. Happy reading, happy voting, and stay spooky! ☀️🔪🏚️🩸