Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: queer, meta, fantastic!
In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun deconstructs the slasher genre. The result is an entertaining and clever flick that blends ’80s nostalgia and gory horror with queerness.
Don’t worry: the following review contains zero spoilers. I won’t tell you anything more than what’s already known and shown in the trailers. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma opens in theatres on 20 August.
I saw my first slasher around eleven or twelve years old. Looking back, it was probably a bit too soon – as evidenced by the fact that Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street haunted me for many moons, keeping me away from the bathtub for quite a while…
Since then, I’ve explored every corner of the slasher flick universe: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream – I’ve seen them all. But nothing I’ve seen before has been as unique, creative, whimsical and simply wonderful as Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
Here’s what it’s all about
The events of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho – told from the perspective of the shower curtain. With this neat idea, queer filmmaker Kris (Hannah Einbinder) catches Hollywood’s attention. Now she’s set to revive the once wildly successful – yet wildly overdone – slasher series Camp Miasma with a reboot. But Kris doesn’t just want to make another instalment in a classically anti-queer franchise; she wants to tell an origin story – essentially, how it all began.
To conduct her research, she arranges a meeting with Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), who played the final girl – the archetypal sole survivor – in the first Camp Miasma film. Since then, she has largely withdrawn from public life, living in the abandoned youth camp where the first film was shot. Kris is immediately fascinated by Billy, who has an alluring and mysterious aura about her. At the same time, something ominous seems to be happening at the original filming location. Finally, there’s Little Death, the villain from Camp Miasma, wielding a lance sharpened on both ends and wearing a ceiling vent on his head.
Source: Filmcoopi
«Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?»
Jane Schoenbrun has made quite a name for herself with her feature film debut We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) and, most recently, «I Saw the TV Glow (2024). The non-binary, transfeminine director brings queer topics to the screen in a refreshing, entertaining and completely new way. Schoenbrun’s films brim with creative ideas, surreal events, double meanings and pop culture references.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma consistently carries on this tradition in the style of slashers from the ’80s and ’90s. Like many of its inspirations, the film is sexually charged. This isn’t just evident in the uptight Kris, who simultaneously longs for physical fulfilment. The clearest indication comes from Camp Miasma antagonist Little Death, who penetrates his victims with his phallic weapon, causing blood to spurt everywhere. In addition, the French term for it – «la petite mort» – refers to a feeling of complete relaxation and a brief loss of control immediately following an orgasm.
Control is a good keyword here. As the film progresses, it slips away from both Kris and the audience. Reality and fiction blur together; one meta-level piles upon another; up becomes down, and down becomes up. In the end, neither Kris nor I know what’s going on – a kind of «petite mort» in itself…
Source: Filmcoopi
Much to praise, little to criticise
Jane Schoenbrun got the casting just right. Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) convincingly portrays the courageous yet deeply insecure Kris at all times. Once again, Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, The Fall) is magnificent. Her Billy is charismatic, enigmatic, sexy and eerie. Every one of her scenes is electrifying, and her chemistry with Einbinder is downright electrifying. Every scene between them bristles with intensity. This plays a major role in how well the film works. It often feels quite like a chamber play.
Schoenbrun pays homage to the ’80s and ’90s, both thematically and visually. At times, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is as gritty as the B-movie slasher films of that era. At others, it’s garishly colourful and oversaturated. The carefully curated film score is a perfect fit. Among other things, you can look forward to Sade, Donna Lewis, R.E.M. and the Counting Crows again.
The screenplay is intelligent, sophisticated and, for the most part, beyond reproach. This film operates on so many different levels that it does feel a bit overloaded toward the end. Sure, this is a deliberate and legitimate stylistic device. Still, one or two fewer storylines wouldn’t have hurt. It’d stop me from losing focus on the main one. It would also have had a positive effect on the runtime. At 112 minutes, it’s already pushing the upper limit.
That aside, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is top-notch entertainment – bold and clever. And as I already said about Obsession, Jane Schoenbrun’s films also bring a breath of fresh air that Hollywood so desperately needs. Including some jabs at that very same dream factory.
Source: Filmcoopi
In a nutshell
A fresh and original fever dream
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma isn’t just a tribute to the slashers of the ’80s and ’90s. It pays homage to and references the originals while critically examining and dissecting them from a queer perspective at the same time. It’s cleverly staged and so intricately interwoven that even the film itself seems to lose its bearings at times.
In Jane Schoenbrun’s newest creation, blood spurts from wounds like fountains, and the film is rife with sex – or at least sexual innuendo. On the one hand, it’s all wonderfully exaggerated and intense; on the other, it’s very intimate and captivating, thanks to the wonderful chemistry between the two leads, Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
Despite being a tad overlong and having one or two too many meta-levels, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is one of my surprise likes of the year. The movie amazed me, captivated me and pulled me out of my comfort zone. It more than deserves the Queer Palm at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Go ahead, watch it in the cinema – if you’re ready to dive into a wholly new and unique slasher.
I'm a full-blooded dad and husband, part-time nerd and chicken farmer, cat tamer and animal lover. I would like to know everything and yet I know nothing. I know even less, but I learn something new every day. What I am good at is dealing with words, spoken and written. And I get to prove that here.
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