Director Jane Schoenbrun’s newest film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is their first to have a true sense of fun. All the elements of their previous films, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, are present in TSADACM, but the premise allows for more humor, love, and optimism. With two incredible performances from the film’s stars, plus a scattering of equally impressive smaller roles, Schoenbrun’s movie easily belongs near the top of anyone’s yearly rankings.
Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is an up-and-coming director given the opportunity to reboot a fading slasher franchise, Camp Miasma. Hoping to pull off a legacy-sequel move, she visits the original film’s star, Billy (Gillian Anderson). Instead, the two women fall into a world of desire, mystery, and delirium.
Einbinder delivers an unforgettable lead performance. Her character’s development over the course of the story is undeniable. Kris’s fandom and passion for filmmaking clearly reflect Schoenbrun, but there are also themes of sexuality and becoming comfortable with one’s identity that both the character and the filmmaker are working through. Einbinder gets plenty of opportunities to explore those ideas, and she uses every one of them to deliver one heck of a performance.
While Einbinder is the clear lead, Anderson gives an Oscar-worthy supporting performance. Explicitly evoking Old Hollywood, she brings so much to the film. The legacy Anderson established in the 1990s through The X-Files only adds another layer to the story. Of course, that kind of meta casting is central to Schoenbrun’s style, and they deploy Anderson expertly within that framework.
As a big fan of slashers—specifically the Friday the 13th franchise—I found a lot to love here. The commentary on the genre, the slasher-inspired sequences from the films within the film, and the detailed memorabilia connected to the fictional franchise completely worked on me. Not only did it remind me of my real-world fandom, but it converted me into a fan of Camp Miasma. The world is so fully realized that it’s easy to feel as though you, too, grew up watching these movies. It’s not just the content created for the movie within the movie that stands out, but also the production of TSADACM itself.
The film blends plenty of old-school techniques with modern filmmaking to create something that feels truly special. Whether it’s matte paintings used to create a sense of verisimilitude or deliberately artificial backdrops that proudly reveal themselves as sets, the production is gorgeous and inventive. The camp itself is incredibly memorable, but it eventually blends into more otherworldly environments that make it stand out even further.
The sets are especially memorable during the movie-within-the-movie sequences, as is the costume of Little Death (Jack Haven). Little Death’s central sequence features one of the absolute best needle drops in recent memory, paired with unforgettable camerawork and editing. Presented as an extended one-shot, the sequence temporarily abandons the fuzzy visual language of the movie within the movie for something slicker and more immediate. It is easily one of my favorite film moments of the year.
Schoenbrun’s usual themes are present and remain incredibly compelling. Where I Saw the TV Glow had a dour and considerably darker tone, those same concepts and stylistic instincts are sweetened slightly here. There is plenty of blood and gore in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, but it isn’t really a scary movie. It’s a sexy film that also features the best possible commercial for dipping sauce one could imagine. It is a true masterpiece of filmmaking for fans of the genre.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is currently playing in select markets.
Rating: 5/5
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