Elizabeth Lail and Mark Indelicato Preview ‘Dead of Summer’ Secrets

If you’re looking for thrills and chills (and killer ’80s tunes) this summer, Dead of Summer is going to be the show for you.

While at ATX Television Festival, I had the opportunity to attend a roundtable interview with two of the stars of the new Freeform series: Elizabeth Lail (who plays camp counselor Amy Hughes) and Mark Indelicato (who plays camp counselor Blair Ramos).

They previewed a bit about what we can expect from the new summer camp horror show.

The ad campaign and trailers for the series have been largely shrouded in mystery, with cast and crew avoiding offering up specifics about the plot. Lail and Indelicato clued us in about the genre, villains, and style of the 1989-set series.

Check out what we learned from them below, and be sure to leave us a comment letting us know what you’re most looking forward to in anticipation of the Dead of Summer series premiere on June 28!

It’s Not Slasher-Horror

Lail and Indelicato both made clear that the show was not a Friday the 13th slasher villain type of situation. “It’s a bit of everything in some ways, but it is, I think, technically a supernatural horror show,” Lail noted. The show also incorporates and weaves in coming-of-age elements, alongside the horror.

“It does this beautiful thing where it is delving into the identity crisis of teenagers. So we’re all trying to figure out who we are and where our place is in the world,” she stated.

Indelicato chimed in, in agreement, stating that the show was very much focused on the complex relationships among the group of young counselors and how they develop.

“I think that’s where a lot of the drama comes in as well. This is a show about kids that come to camp to be who they truly are, and the secrets that they’re hiding,” he said.

But it’s not all darkness and drama. “There are really some quite comedic moments as well,” Indelicato said.

There Is More Than One Villain

In the first episode of the series, we’re introduced to a character who seems to be a de facto villain–but it’s not quite as simple as that.

“You get a good idea of the kind of stereotypical villain in the first episode, of who you think it is,” Indelicato said. “It gets complicated. It’s unclear to us in a lot of ways as well.”

“The camp has this mysterious way of manifesting [trauma] physically and supernaturally,” Lail said, noting that the camp itself has “its own life.”

Then of course, there are the Satanists–or the threat of them, anyway. “In 1989, there was a Satanist craze, so it’s also set in that time period, to have that be part of the story as well,” she said.

Finally, because the show is in equal part a “coming of age” tale, it drives home the point that sometimes, as Lail put it, “you’re your own worst enemy.” Each character is dealing with their own inner secrets and demons.

Even The Cast Doesn’t Know All Of The Secrets

“Adam and Eddie and Ian are quite well-versed in writing things that have many, many twists and turns,” Indelicato said.

When asked if they had an idea of the overall arc and secrets of the season, Indelicato noted that while he knew, during the initial audition process, what the writers wanted the show to be, the minutiae were (and remain) hidden to the cast.

“We have to be so secretive about it, so I don’t think they wanted to tell us anything before we were actually on set shooting it,” he said.

Lail mentioned that it’s a pleasant surprise, to be discovering the story as it unravels, in a way like the audience would.

Lail and Indelicato said that occasionally the cast would sit around and discuss what they thought was going on, only to later find out that all their theories were dead wrong. “We think we know, and then we don’t know,” said Lail.

“Yeah, we sit in a circle and, like, come up with all of these theories and then we’re completely wrong,” laughed Indelicato.

It’s Not Your Average Freeform Show

Lail and Indelicato classified Dead of Summer as a “very dark” show, perhaps darker than other Freeform series that have come before it.

“It’s very dark. Every time I read an episode, it just gets darker and darker and richer,” Lail said. “But the wonderful thing is, it’s still very truthful. It’s not just dark for dark’s sake, or scary for scary’s sake. They’re creating something really complex and smart but still relatable to the Freeform audience.”

Indelicato agreed, also noting that the visuals in the series were particularly impressive.

“It still has that surreal element that is intriguing to the Freeform audience as well,” he said. “It looks so amazing, visually, aesthetically–it looks the best that I’ve ever seen a Freeform show look.”

Music and ’80s Culture Plays A Big Role

Certain characters (like Indelicato’s Blair Ramos and Amber Coney’s Cricket Diaz) are more invested in music than others. Indelicato noted that the music-invested characters were given mixtapes by the writers, to help them get into character, while other characters were given other pop cultural cues.

“They gave Eli [Goree, who plays Joel Goodson] films that Joel would like. But for me, music being such a huge part of my character, it was a lot of Bowie (mostly Bowie), a lot of The Cure, The Clash, The Ramones,” he said. “And I’m wearing all of those T-shirts in the show, too. So I exclusively wear band T-shirts in the show.”

“Getting a mix tape was definitely informative in developing Blair and kind of getting a bit of insight into who he is,” Indelicato confirmed.

Who Is Blair Ramos?

Blair seems a particularly compelling character, right off the bat, as an openly gay teenager living in 1989. Indelicato called Blair’s “sense of self and his confidence” his favorite parts of the character he plays.

“I’ve always said that Blair is the most well-adjusted character. You don’t see a lot of him in the pilot, but his story does start to evolve and manifest itself in the episodes after,” Indelicato said.

“He’s quite confident in himself and his sexuality and his sense of self is very strong. To contextualize that, in 1989, being an openly gay teenager, that takes a lot of courage.”

Indelicato related to his character on a more personal level as well, seeing a lot of himself in the character as Blair continued to develop.

Indelicato said that Blair’s sexuality doesn’t isolate him from the rest of the group. “I think that we’re making a strong message by saying, you know, he’s friends with all of these people who couldn’t be more different from one another but who accept him wholeheartedly.”

Tune in to see the series premiere of Dead of Summer June 28 at 9/8c on Freeform.

You can also check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. (There is still more to come!)