Starring: Jason Schneider, Ashlyn McCain, Bridget Linda Froemming
Directed by: Scott Tepperman
Summertime sure brings a laundry-list of unfortunate instances along with it, doesn’t it? You’ve got excessively hot temperatures to deal with, certain areas deal with storms & drought, and then there are the brutal slayings…thanks a lot, global warming! In any event, Director, Writer & Actor Scott Tepperman’s latest installment into his CRUEL SUMMER franchise has delivered yet again, and thanks to his generosity I was given the opportunity of diving skull-first into it. CRUEL SUMMER III: PRAY FOR FALL is the title of this continuation piece, and it ramps up the tension for the poor, unfortunate souls that managed to survive the last film with their skins intact – so what beholds their fate in this third go-round? Step into the embalming room and we’ll all have a gander together – strap on your splash-guards, cause this is more than likely to get messy.
A short moment has passed since the horrific events of “The Performance Of Blood”, and the survivors are simply trying to gain a millisecond to catch their wayward breaths, especially recently-retired police sergeant Fasano (Schneider), whose dogged-determination brought down the sadistic Gunnar (Tepperman)…or did he? Looks like the PTSD bell is ringing rather heavily in the detective’s gray-matter and he cannot let go what could have been, or what still may be out there waiting in the dark. Fasano’s swearing on a stack of bibles that Gunnar has taken that extra step – faking his own death and laying low, calculating for the exact moment to pick up his slaughter-iffic ways, and when a troubling amount of murders befall Fasano’s trauma-support group, it’s apparent that something has reared it’s masked head to wreak havoc once again.
Tepperman uses copious amounts of psychological distortion & even more airborne crimson to enhance the story this 3rd time around, and it all adds up to yet another grimy-good time that will have the audience pleading to go back to the beloved days of VHS horror. The cast more than fits the plan here, and with the addition of a killer roster including Felissa Rose Miller (SLEEPAWAY CAMP), John Dugan (THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) & Beatrice Boepple ((A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD), any genre fan should be chewing through their straight-jackets to get a look at this film. Pre-orders for Blu-ray & VHS copies are already being taken @ screamteamreleasing.com, so get your cold bones on over and pick up some goodies PRONTO!
