Jane Schoenbrun has once again made a movie that feels deeply personal, completely singular, and unmistakably their own. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a wildly meta horror-comedy that uses the conventions of the slasher movie to explore sexual awakening, queerness, self-discovery, and the complicated relationship we have with the movies that shape us.
The film follows Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a smart, somewhat sheltered young woman tasked with rebooting her favorite horror franchise, Camp Miasma. In the process, she tracks down Billy (Gillian Anderson), the final girl from the original film, who has become a recluse and now lives at the very camp where the movie was filmed. That premise alone gives Schoenbrun plenty to play with, and they absolutely run with it.
The opening credits immediately hooked me. Watching the Camp Miasma franchise grow increasingly ridiculous, sequel after sequel, felt like a hilarious love letter to the excesses of ‘80s horror franchises. It’s impossible not to think of Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween as these movies keep escalating into increasingly absurd territory. It’s a perfect introduction to a movie that is constantly examining, celebrating, and poking fun at the horror genre.
But underneath all of that is something much more thoughtful. Kris has never really been comfortable with sex or her own sexuality, and her relationship with the Camp Miasma movies is tied directly to her own queer awakening. Now, years later, she finds herself at the location where that awakening began, alongside the woman who inadvertently became such an important part of it. Billy’s own history with the franchise gives Kris a kind of roadmap for exploring something she has spent much of her life feeling uncomfortable and anxious about.
That’s where the movie becomes especially clever. Schoenbrun blends reality and fantasy together until the distinction between the two becomes increasingly irrelevant. Little Death, the franchise’s killer, becomes more than just a slasher villain; they’re a vehicle for exploring the characters’ relationship with sexuality and pleasure. Kris essentially uses the language of horror movies to understand herself, and the movie takes that idea to wonderfully ridiculous extremes.
The horror imagery is often hysterical. Schoenbrun lovingly recreates the ridiculous conventions of old slashers—the exaggerated blood, the absurd kills, the sexualized chase sequences—and then uses those conventions to comment on the very things that made those movies so memorable. It’s campy, colorful, outrageous, and frequently hilarious, but there is always an idea underneath the spectacle.
That’s something I really admire about Schoenbrun. They make movies with an incredibly distinct voice, and their films feel like they’re coming from a very specific, personal place. I Saw the TV Glow explored gender identity, repression, and self-discovery through a much sadder and more haunting lens. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is tackling its own form of coming into yourself, but it does so with far more joy, humor, sexuality, and outright absurdity.
And that joy is what makes the movie work so well. This is a film about subjects that can make people uncomfortable—coming out, sexuality, pleasure, feeling inexperienced or awkward—but Schoenbrun approaches them with warmth rather than judgment. The movie is ultimately about allowing yourself to explore who you are without being ashamed of it.
Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson are terrific together, with a chemistry that carries the movie through all of its strangest turns. Their relationship gives the film an emotional center beneath all the blood, camp, and surrealism.
And then there’s that ending. Donna Lewis’s “I Love You Always Forever” is one of my favorite songs, and hearing it close out this movie felt absolutely perfect. The song has this infectious, almost euphoric sense of happiness that captures exactly how I felt watching the film. If I Saw the TV Glow left me devastated, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma left me smiling.
This is just a great time at the movies. It’s funny, colorful, bizarre, horny, thoughtful, and genuinely sweet. Schoenbrun has made another film that feels deeply personal while also being incredibly entertaining, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this becomes a cult classic.
I had a blast with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. It’s a wonderfully weird meta-horror comedy from a filmmaker who continues to prove that they have one of the most distinctive voices working today.
Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma = 86/100
