In Jane Schoenbrun’s witty and pleasingly bizarre Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the promising young filmmaker Kris (Hannah Einbinder) has been tapped to make yet another sequel to a slasher movie franchise. The once popular Camp Miasma movie franchise has slipped into oblivion, and the movie studio that owns the intellectual property wants to re-monetize it. The origin story of the slasher character was transphobic, so the studio intends to use Kris, who is polyamorous, to queer-wash the newest Camp Miasma movie.
The Camp Miasma movies are devoid of any cinematic aspiration, but the cynical studio execs just want to cash in with more schlock. What the suits don’t know is that Kris herself is a huge fan of the franchise, and that Kris, who over-intellectualizes everything, has envisioned elevating the next chapter into something artsy and meaningful. And she’s obsessed with casting Billy, the actress who played the Final Girl in the original 1980s Camp Miasma.
Billy (Gillian Anderson) retired early from acting and now lives a reclusive life in the abandoned summer camp that was fictionalized as Camp Miasma in the movies. Billy is more than a little weird, and she both fascinates and unsettles Kris. I strongly recommend Schoenbrun’s own video narration of a scene in the NYT; there’s absolutely no gore in this clip.
As the two rewatch the original movie, Schoenbrun spins Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma into a loving homage to and parody of the slasher movie genre. They send up all the slasher movie tropes – a bunch of teens doing things their parents wouldn’t like, impending virgin deflowering, the nocturnal emergence of a slasher villain and the plot importance of the Final Girl. Here, the slasher villain is Little Death, who wears an HVAC vent on their head and wields a bayonet-like spear.The body horror is intentionally so unrealistic (Old Faithful-scale geysers of blood instead of mere spurts) that it’s not as cringe-worthy as are most teen splatter movies.
Kris proudly proclaims herself to be polyamorous as if she’s earning some woke-ism points. But polyamorous threesomes may be equitably more reciprocal in theory than in practice. Kris’ girlfriend and the girlfriend’s boyfriend seem to be getting more of their needs met than does Kris. Basically, Kris is masking that she is a puddle of sexual unfulfillment. Will her stirrings be awakened?
In another comic thread, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma sharply mocks the cynical business side of Hollywood, including perhaps the most disastrous movie pitch ever,
Hannah Einbinder carries the movie, reaping all the humor in Kris’ pretensions and her sexual unease, along with her Final Girl vulnerability. Einbinder, a standup comic and daughter of SNL original cast member Laraine Newman, won an Emmy for the TV series Hacks.
Gillian Anderson goes full creepster and nails Billy’s teetering between assured self-control and psychosis.
Amanda Fix plays the young Billy acting in the first Camp Miasma film, and her performance is unexpectedly haunting. Dylan Baker strikes the perfect tone as a studio exec. Prolific character actors Patrick Fischler and Kevin MacDonald are very fun as slasher movie tropes – the ominous townsman and the local sheriff; wait through the final credits for their final gag.
In 2024, I wrote that Schoenbrun’s evocative psychodrama I Saw the TV Glow was the “emergence of a great filmmaker”, and that was a good call by me. In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, they have successfully braided together a romantic comedy, a sexual awakening film, a horror movie and a slasher parody. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is very smart and riotously funny.