Jane Schoenbrun made a name for themselves with their sophomore effort, I Saw the TV Glow, a nostalgia-powered surreal movie. They attempt the same trick again with their follow-up film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder) is an indie filmmaker who is hired to reboot the Camp Miasma horror series. To crack the story, she goes and meets Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original movie. Over the course of three days, the pair bonds over the original film, and Kris shares why it was so special to her.
I Saw the TV Glow was a critical darling, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has followed in its footsteps. It has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was nominated for the Un Certain Regard at the 79th Cannes Film Festival and won the Queer Palm award. It has also been picked up by a prestigious distributor, this time Mubi. A review of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma can be summed up as if you liked I Saw the TV Glow, you should like Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma covered the same territory as I Saw the TV Glow and told it in a similar manner. Both films were about the power of media and nostalgia and how that impacts people. I Saw the TV Glow was about a young man who found solace and friendship through a young adult TV show. The Camp Miasma series gave Kris her gay awakening, even though the series had a problematic portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community.
I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma shared a dreamy, surrealism as the characters visited the fictional worlds. Like Owen in I Saw the TV Glow, Kris saw themselves as the main character in the media they watched. Schoenbrun does have a distinctive visual style, which they brought to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The best sequence in the film was when Little Death (Jack Haven) went on his rampage. It turned slasher violence into something mesmerising and artistic.
The Camp Miasma series also gave Kris a sexual awakening. Billy described the appeal of Camp Miasma as ‘flesh and fluid,’ a fair summary of many ‘80s slashers. Kris was infatuated with Billy’s character in the first Camp Miasma movie and wanted to be the character in her fantasies. The bond between Kris and Billy became more than professional, and the ageing actress helped Kris explore her sexuality. Even the name of the slasher villain was a sexual reference because ‘Little Death’ was a euphemism for an orgasm. It’s a fact I know thanks to American Dad.
The Camp Miasma was modelled on Friday the 13th. The opening credits did a great job showing the series’ trajectory. It started as a smash hit, became the focal point of a moral panic, before succumbing to diminishing returns, like having a later film set in space and winning Razzies. The first Camp Miasma film mirrors the first Friday the 13th movie because they were about teenagers set to work at a summer camp that was closed down after a child died and ended up getting attacked by a masked killer.
The Camp Miasma major difference with Friday the 13th was that their dead kid was trans and killed during a homophobic attack. This was done to highlight the horror genre’s problematic history with portraying transsexual people, like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs. Kris was hired to direct the reboot because she could queerwash the series, but she relished the challenge.
This mix of slasher movie tropes and commentary about the film industry gave Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma a meta element. It was Scream’s pretentious cousin as it broke down the tropes of the slasher genre. Friday the 13th was the obvious target considering its presence in pop culture: it has been referenced in everything from The Simpsons to Shaun the Sheep: The Bottom of Mossy Bottom. However, it wasn’t as interesting at breaking down the tropes of the series like In a Violent Nature. Billy played a dual role because she was both an ageing actress who has become a recluse, and showing what happens to a final girl after surviving a psycho killer
Kris said she got the job because of ‘woke’ culture in Hollywood. Hollywood is socially liberal, and producers want to showcase it. It will be interesting to see how YouTube grifters would react to this film because it validates their opinion that Hollywood is virtue signalling, but it came from an overtly LGBTQ+ movie made by a non-binary filmmaker.
Kris described her debut as popular with critics but not with audiences. That could sum up Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma because it was made for critics and film festivals, and it will be studied in academic circles. If Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a person, their head would be deep up their own arse. It was a film that wanted to show how smart it was with its breakdown of genre tropes through a female and queer lens, and it did it in the most obtuse way possible.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a frustration film. It had big ideas and some fantastic sequences, but it acted like it wanted to be impenetrable matter.
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