Movies
[Book Review] Adam Cesare Earns A Raise With ‘The Summer Job’
The Summer Job (January 7, 2014; Samhain), the latest novel from emerging author Adam Cesare, is the textbook definition of a nail-biter. Gone is the whimsical creature-feature nostalgia of his last novel, Video Night, as Cesare ups the ante with a slice of hillbilly horror that packs enough mounting dread to fill a backwoods kill-shack. And at a tight 234 pages, The Summer Job is a burner––one taste, and it’s gone before you know it.
After a harrowing prologue that truly sets the tone, Cesare introduces his punky protagonist Claire, an aimless waitress with a loser musician boyfriend. Her predictably hot/bitchy bestie convinces Claire to apply for a position at the old-school but luxurious Brant Hotel, located a couple of hours away in a remote town in New Hampshire. Fleeing her shitty waitress life, Claire immediately gets the job at the Brant, only to be sucked into the village’s web of increasingly lurid secrets.
Namely, there’s some sort of feud going on between Ms. Brant the grumpy hotel owner and a feisty cult of hillbilly hippies who party out in the nearby woods, and Claire is immediately drawn into the fray. Perpetually horny, poor Claire can’t help crushin’ on local beefcake Tobin, and once accepted into the hillbilly hippie inner-circle, Claire is pressured to spy on Ms. Brant and the hotel staff. Soon rumors of ritual sacrifice and possible Satanism begin to surface, the stories so shocking and grotesque, Claire doesn’t know what to believe. All she knows is that she’s caught in the middle.
With its secluded setting and penchant for ritualistic violence, The Summer Job is a kissing cousin to inbred classics from masters like Ketchum and Kilborn. Although the story is primarily plot-driven, Cesare has a knack for breezy, natural dialogue that rarely sounds forced, an attribute that keeps the pages turning. Some readers may take issue with Claire’s increasingly moronic character decisions, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the reader always knows more than Claire, which leads to a heightened sense of suspense as the action progresses. Toss in a handful of slick plot twists and an admirably bleak ending, and the result is Cesare’s best novel yet.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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