The unofficial theme of this year’s Fantastic Fest seemed to be “fuck them kids“. So, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the kids were not alright in director and co-writer Bartosz M. Kowalski’s new Polish home invasion slasher. 13 Days Till Summer (also known as 13 dni do wakacji) was a pleasant and unnerving surprise. What initially seemed like another investigative procedural soon became something much bigger and deadlier. 

13 Days Till Summer opens with a creepy mask, a mysterious murder, and a teen who finds the body. The murder rocks the community and leads people to wonder if it is somehow connected to last year’s murders. The school janitor’s wife and children were killed, but no one was apprehended. So, another shocking murder on the anniversary of an unsolved crime puts everyone on edge.

Antek (Teodor Koziar), the kid who discovered the guy, is an unhappy teen. He is bullied at school and has a tense dynamic with his small family. He and his sister, Paula (Katarzyna Galazka), fight constantly as he blames her for their mother abandoning them. As the eldest kid, Paula is also taking on a lot of the familial responsibility. This also puts her in a strange position as a surrogate parental figure for her brother, who is almost her age. This might also be part of the reason their arguments are brutal and lead to the occasional slap.

Also Read: ‘Camp’ Review: Melancholy Magical Perfection from Avalon Fast [Fantastic Fest 2025]

Meanwhile, their barely present father seems fine to let her run the house as he takes business trips. After all, they live in a high-tech smart home, so they should be safe, right? This is where the home invasion part of the story turns up. The smart home becomes an expensive death trap when the wrong person gets their hands on the controls. Which is exactly what happens when Paula takes advantage of her dad’s business trip and invites people over.

Paula and her friends are enjoying their youth without a care in the world as Antek skulks around. The festivities are disrupted by Magda (Olga Rayska), the young woman who has been stalking Paula. She claims Paula’s boyfriend, Piotrek (Antek Sztaba), never broke up with her. Piotrek claims they were never serious and tries to convince people she’s unwell. This teen drama soon takes a back seat once people start dying, and the dread sinks in. 13 Days Till Summer might have let you forget it was a slasher for a bit. However, once all of the characters are in the home and vulnerable, it breaks out the knife and gets down to business.

Also Read: ‘Ikatan Darah’ Review: A Revenge Film Packed To The Brim with Action [Fantastic Fest 2025]

13 Days Till Summer is coming on the heels of quite a few recent and popular slashers, and it attempts to cut its way out of their shadow by having some of the most sadistic murders of the year. We do not get big, flashy, over-the-top kills here. In fact, most of the friends’ deaths are forgettable aside from the bad decisions they made that led to them getting the chop. However, the willingness to get intimate and make these kills feel personal helps the movie stand out a bit more than it would have had it tried to copy the energy of these more recent slashers. 

It also helps remind the audience that the killer is someone who knows these teens and this house. This betrayal hangs over the movie. It practically underscores how their smart home is now a death trap, and they were never truly safe. If nothing else, the movie reminds us that we are never truly safe, no matter what the promise of youth leads us to believe. Many of us think we’ll live forever in our youth and take for granted that things will work in our favor. So, watching this weekend of teen mischief turn into a blood bath, knowing that someone(s) who knows them well enough to do this is responsible, cuts like a knife. To be attacked in a high-tech home built to prevent such senseless violence feels like a twist of the knife out of spite.

Also Read: ‘Theater is Dead’ Review: Chekhov’s Menstrual Cup [Fantastic Fest 2025]

13 Days Till Summer captures all of these fleeting and terrifying thoughts and has the nerve to have deeply upsetting masks. Not only are the proportions off-kilter, but the mask is upside down, making it even trippier. Even when the killer is just standing still, the mask causes upset and unrest. The vacant eyes staring out where the chin is supposed to be is unnerving to say the least. While the script, written by Kowalski, Thor Magnusson, and Mirella Zaradkiewicz, was already a disturbing vibe, the nightmarish mask seals the deal. The mask being the beacon for doom as things escalate to a surprisingly dark ending is effectively chilling.

If you are like me and love slashers and international horror, then you’ll dig this. If you are a fan of home invasions or watching smart homes lead to ruin, you might also have a great time. 13 Days Till Summer really has something for every ghoul as it builds to a gruesome and unexpected ending. It’s the kind of movie that’s a bit of a slow burn. However, it actually rewards the audience for sticking with it, instead of offering more vibes and a whimper. It quietly sets itself apart from the other 2025 movies in the subgenres it is slaying in. What a year to be a horror fan, man.

Summary

’13 Days Till Summer’ really has something for every ghoul as it builds to a gruesome and unexpected ending. It is the kind of movie that is a bit of a slow burn. However, it actually rewards the audience for sticking with it, instead of offering more vibes and a whimper.

Categorized: Reviews