Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker on the verge of her big break as the new director of the Camp Miasma reboot.
In the 80s, Camp Miasma stood as the pinnacle of tawdry slasher horror, but over the years, its reputation faded in the wake of endless awful sequels and the realization that its plot – featuring a trans man as the killer – had aged less than well. Now, Kris is the face of a new generation, someone who will give the dying IP a breath of life thanks to her "wokeness".
Kris realizes her part in the machine, but that doesn't stop her from reaching out to Billy Preston (Gillian Anderson), the reclusive original final girl of the franchise, who has lived out of the spotlight for decades. Despite a rocky start, Kris heads to Billy's home, which turns out to be the original Camp Miasma from the films.
As the two bond, they watch the original film, eat junk food, smoke pot, and suddenly reality and cinema blend as one, as writer/director Jane Schoenbrun smartly and with great humanity explores the dynamics of sex, sexuality, gender, and our identity that's been defined by an era that was almost robbed from us in the blink of an eye.
Before the opening credits were over, I knew I was destined to love Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. It is more accessible, more fun, more camp than I Saw the TV Glow, which will probably remain my favorite for now because of how much that film forced me to have conversations with myself. But as Camp Miasma rolled out its red carpet, complete with a hauntingly beautiful cover of an already hauntingly beautiful Night Swimming by REM, I felt as if returning to an emotional home I had missed for years.
Schoenbrun's film is exceptionally cinematically literate. It has a deep love for not just slashers, but all the "forbidden" films that video rentals held in the days we were still allowed to curate our own tastes. Like I Saw the TV Glow, Camp Miasma explores our relationship with the screen and the world each screen reveals to us. Even the killer, Little Death, shows glimpses of a pair of wide-open eyes behind the mask, which looks like a ceiling fan, as if they, too, were a voyeur of this world.
As Billy and Kris reveal more about themselves to each other, Camp Miasma turns into an extended, playful, and surprisingly tender meet-cute between a sexually insecure younger queer and their sultry, far more confident role model. If I Saw the TV Glow was about the egg shell cracking, Camp Miasma is, at least in part, about the moment where we start to understand our true sexual awakening, regardless of the age it comes in.
Anderson and Einbinder are superb in their parts, with Einbinder making the most of her nervous energy that overflows with expectation of something that never materialized. Anderson, who clearly knows her place in pop culture history, leans past easy titillation into something far sillier, which itself is so confident it loops back around to being sexy all over again.
Yet Camp Miasma isn't so easily categorized or defined. Yes, it's funny, yes, it's sexy, but it's also scary, moving, haunting, complex, and infinitely rewarding. It's frustrating, too. At times, it felt as if Schoenbrun, the director, was intentionally keeping what I wanted at bay and, right at the last minute, would return with something else that rewarded my attention. There are references upon references, a couple of big belly laughs, and a hugely satisfying sequence from Little Death's point of view that is as inventive as it is shocking.
I'm not sure how it all fits together, or how that final reel clicked for me. But since my screening yesterday morning, I've thought of nothing else. I've gone back and forth with my notes, annoyed at parts and enamored by others. I've asked myself things about my past, and marveled at how Schoenbrun and I – and possibly millions of others – share so much of what we love and fear, yet have managed to feel alone so often in our lives.
It is a sign of a great filmmaker and a terrific film that these feelings are possible. I think, over time, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will only grow in my estimation, much like I Saw the TV Glow. It is yet another sign that Schoenbrun is the real deal and one of the most exciting voices working in film today.
