It’s no hyperbole to say that Jane Schoenbrun is redefining how we see genre films. The filmmaker forces the audience to question everything from their identity to their most closely-held views, insecurities, and fears, all the while playing with traditional tropes to turn horror on its head. Their feature debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, in 2021, signalled Schoenbrun as a force to be reckoned with right out of the gate, while their 2024 follow-up film, I Saw the TV Glow, took the cinema world by storm, racking up several awards and being hailed a ‘masterpiece’ several times over. It’s an incredibly tough act to follow, but with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Schoenbrun has created another modern masterpiece.
The film, which had its UK premiere at SXSW London, follows Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a young queer filmmaker tasked with rebooting the classic ‘80s slasher franchise Camp Miasma. She arranges a meeting with Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the final girl from the original film, who declined to return for the sequels and instead fell into obscurity. Kris tracks her down to the abandoned summer camp where the first film was shot, pitching her reboot idea and desire to work with the starlet. While they get to know each other better, they develop an intense psychological connection, with the boundaries between reality and Camp Miasma becoming increasingly blurred.
The slasher genre has always been used as a vehicle to explore themes of sexuality and gender identity, traditionally, to demonise those living outside of the gender binary and to punish those who experiment sexually in favour of saving the virginal final girl. It’s a trope Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma heavily satirises, while also exploring earnestly through a modern lens as it examines the anxieties of experiencing intimacy and self-expression. The film-within-a-film is every bit the campy slasher we have all come to know and love from the ‘golden age’ of horror, with girls in skimpy outfits and jocks with rippling muscles hooking up when the campfire burns to embers, before being picked off by Camp Miasma’s bizarre villain, Little Death (Jack Haven). Though trope-laden, the screening of Camp Miasma enjoyed by Kris and Billy isn’t simply a pastiche, instead playing as a sincere celebration of genre filmmaking and the enduring legacy of many well-known slasher franchises that have shaped the genre it is today. Schoenbrun carefully balances the narrative as both an ode to genre cinema and a satire criticising the film industry’s obsession with rebooting familiar intellectual property and franchises, without either message feeling simplified or being denied the time and consideration they deserve.
In the ‘real world’ of the film, Kris candidly opens up about her difficulties with intimacy and sex, struggling in her polyamorous relationship to connect to her primary partner, instead favouring work. Through her relationship with Billy, herself carrying sexual trauma that she struggles to vocalise, the duo breaks down boundaries and explores the spectrum of sexuality, intimacy, and love as their friendship blooms into something more, something indefinable, and something raw and real that propels the erotic and deeply moving narrative to empowering heights. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a nuanced, sensitive portrayal of gender, desire, and how the media has shaped identity and the views we hold of our own body and sexuality, taking the elements of sex and relationships we often don’t vocalise and giving them the spotlight with a care not often seen on the big screen.
This wouldn’t be achievable were it not for Einbinder and Anderson’s flawless performances and electric chemistry throughout the movie. Making her major feature-film debut, Hacks star Einbinder oozes an awkward charm as Kris, the earnest and inexperienced young director eager to please and to resurrect the ailing Camp Miasma franchise with her own fresh vision. Einbinder is magnetic, carrying the film’s fever-dream atmosphere as she slips further and further into a hallucinatory state while on her journey of self-discovery. Anderson is every bit the star she always is in whatever role she takes on, commanding the screen every time she graces it. Billy possesses cutting wit as well as soft words of wisdom, guiding Kris through the world of Camp Miasma as well as her own personal troubles in a career-defining performance that deserves every accolade going this festival season. Jack Haven, who previously appeared in I Saw the TV Glow, is irresistibly playful as the film’s villain, Little Death.
All of this is wrapped up in the surreal world of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a work of art and itself as much a character as the central cast. The cinematography and editing are sumptuous and phantasmagoric, with a warm colour palette and careful framing, making every scene feel like a painting in an art gallery. Accompanied by a dreamlike soundtrack from Alex G, audiences can slip away into the fantasy world of the film from the very opening scene, with lashings of spurting gore to immediately hook you in and starkly juxtapose the warm, cosy setting we’re thrust into.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a triumph of genre cinema and the crowning jewel in Schoenbrun’s already impressive career. The sharp meta-satire champions a unique blend of romance, horror, and comedy that explores human intimacy, love, friendships, betrayal, and death. Much of Schoenbrun’s work has had a melancholic edge, with I Saw the TV Glow offering a glimmer of hope among the gloom, with that same hopeful thread bursting to the forefront of their latest feature with its playful and warm take on sex and relationships while working through trauma. More of a love story than a slasher film with two impossibly captivating leads at its centre, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma continues Schoenbrun’s trend of deconstructing cinema as we know it, creating something wholly unique, strange, eccentric, and punk in its wake, something that will stay with the audience long after they finish watching.
TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA had its UK premiere at SXSW London.
