Written And Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Kris: "I feel like there's about to be a jump scare."
A couple of months ago, I caught up with I Saw The TV Glow and found it's commentary on cheesy 90s cult TV shows to be a rather interesting backdrop to a coming of age story.
This time around, it was the turn of 80s camp related slashers to be put under the microscope. If you're a fan of Friday The 13th, The Burning and Sleepaway Camp, this movie had a lot to say about those movies. Specifically the latter and it's transphobia.
Our protagonist was the generally likable queer filmmaker, Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder). She grew up being a fan of the Camp Miasma horror franchise, in spite of its problematic elements. She was being given the opportunity to resurrect the franchise with a reboot. She was gonna it's transphobia problem.
On top of that, she was also determined to get the star of the original film - Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson) involved in the production. Kris wanted to basically give Billy the Jamie Lee Curtis treatment, though her bosses were less enthusiastic about the idea.
The movie spent most of its time building towards the attraction between Kris and Billy. It moved at a pleasant pace with both women opening up to one another. Then the lines between the real world and the world of Camp Miasma began to blur into each other.
The use of that franchise's sympathetic antagonist Little Death (Jack Haven) while both Kris and Billy underwent their own sexual awakening actually worked pretty well. By the end of this film, Kris had a new movie to add to her favourite horror franchise and got to achieve a fan dream in other aspects too.
- There's some decent supporting roles from Patrick Fischer, Dylan Baker, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Quintessa Swindell, Arthur Conti, Eva Victor and Zach Cherry to name a few.
- There's a very clever use of both VHS and DVDs throughout the movie. A post credit scene has characters discussing a sequel.
- Standout music: Counting Crows A Long December and Sade's No Ordinary Love.
- Chronology: The cabin from the original movie that Billy lived was in the Pacific Northwest.
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma isn't the most flashiest or even slashiest of horror films but it's an insightful enough deep dive into a specific type of horror. Both Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson make for a compelling double act here.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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