Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a slasher film in a slasher film
Almost five years after their debut film We’re All Going To The World’s Fair at Sundance, Jane Schroenbrun has gone from indie-funded Creepypasta filmmaking to being one of the foremost trans filmmakers working in Hollywood.
While 2023’s I Saw The TV Glow saw the filmmaker’s nuanced themes and unique take on genre, blending horror and coming-of-age, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma tells a different kind of coming-of-age story as a queer filmmaker finds herself collaborating and becoming increasingly fixated on the reclusive star of the horror franchise she’s been tasked to reboot.
Fresh off a career-turning run on HBO’s Hacks, Hannah Einbinder stars as Kris, a commentary-driven queer filmmaker, who finds herself mystified, drawn in, and even terrified by final girl turned recluse Billy Pressley, played by Gillian Anderson.
At the center of the film is the long history of franchise horror films, with the film immediately establishing the Camp Miasma film-franchise as beloved, but greatly flawed following Billy’s departure after the second film in the soon-to-be-bloated franchise. Clearly an ode to the Friday the 13th films and Sleepaway Camp, the Camp Miasma franchise falls into a familiar 1980s trap: blaming the slasher Little Death’s violence on the figure’s transgender identity. While Kris attempts to convince Billy to agree to a cameo role in her reboot, the filmmaker finds film studio mandates coming at odds with her own feelings about what a Camp Miasma reboot looks like. Attempting to capture the magic of the first film, Kris visits the remote campground that served as the original film’s set, now transformed into Billy’s own ode to the franchise despite having left acting behind. But Kris quickly becomes convinced that the thing that makes Camp Miasma movie magic isn’t some updated backstory or high budget reboot, but rather, Billy Pressley herself.
As Kris attempts to navigate Hollywood politics, she finds herself venturing further into the so-called “private reality” that Billy has created for herself, the line between the films and reality blurring. The film delivers on its promise of sex, gore, and something a bit more cerebral as the pair’s relationship becomes sexual, with Billy urging Kris to not be afraid and instead lean into how her own relationship with Camp Miasma complicates her feelings about the reboot. At the heart of the film is Schoenburn’s understanding that the slasher genre, especially the more problematic entries, is one that allows the viewer to simultaneously occupy the roles of victim, killer, and final girl, each with their own unique (and even sexual) draw. The film’s final act hammers this point home as Kris and Billy find themselves pursued by Little Death, reality and fiction no longer separated for one more bloody entry in the film franchise.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a film that secures Schoenburn’s place amongst the weird auteur filmmakers such as David Lynch and David Cronenberg as an extremely creative, evocative filmmaker. While the film’s pacing felt a tad uneven in the second act, it is a beautiful film that doesn’t forgo Schoenburn’s early aesthetics, forgoing practical landscape shots for hand-drawn backgrounds and sound-stage reminiscent set pieces. Even if this film is a horror movie about slasher films, it doesn’t stray away from slasher absurdity, filling the early Camp Miasma entries full of CGI blood and geyser bloodspray effects.
But the true horror of the film isn’t even centered around life and death, rather focusing on the horror of being unable to separate one’s self from convention and expectation. While Kris is hired to reboot Camp Miasma due to her cerebral, queer-centered style, this very perspective is what puts her at odds with the people producing the reboot, with only Billy being able to see that the thing Kris needs to capture is in part the perversion of the slasher genre itself, allowing herself to inhabit the role as both victim and killer. Though the film doesn’t resolve the conflicts between Kris, her agent, and the people in charge, it seems to forewarn against the trends we see in the horror genre: be it the toning down of risque material or the requirement that we as the audience like our protagonist. While the film isn’t perfect, Einbinder and Anderson deliver near perfect performances, truly embodying the characters and delivering some electric chemistry amongst the pair.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma can be seen in limited theaters nationwide in distribution with Mubi.
