Realising too late that they are being held hostage, the kids are forced to embrace the dark side of human nature in order to survive the ordeal.

The site's consensus reads: "This low budget British psycho-thriller packs plenty of atmospheric tension and suspense into its slender running time.

"[3] Summer Scars has been linked with other, roughly contemporaneous, films that deal with concerns over "Broken Britain" and a fear of "hoodies", including Harry Brown, Eden Lake, The Disappeared, Outlaw, The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael and Heartless.

[5] Josh Winning of Total Film rated it 3/5 stars and called it a "bare-boned tween nightmare" that is a combination of Stand by Me and Eden Lake.

[7] Andrew Pulver of The Guardian rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "There's not much to recommend in this putative hoodie horror from Julian Richards, which takes the inverse position to Eden Lake.