Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Nothing says the 1980s like summer camp, whether it was naughty teen comedies like Meatballs or bloody slashers like Sleepaway Camp. This movie is greatly influenced by the latter and not at all by the former. Instead, it announces it alternate sexuality, over and over and over. However, the slasher nostalgia is real. The fictional Camp Miasma franchise is due for another reboot and a former fan with indie cred like Kris Williams seems perfect for the job, but she might get a little too close to the project in director-screenwriter Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which opens this Friday in theaters.

The studio hacks accidentally give the game away to the audience when they mandate the new Camp Miasma must be “elevated, which means woke.” Williams seems like the right choice, because her work is all about her sexuality. However, she has genuine affection for the franchise, whose history cleverly unfolds during the opening sequence. The first was a surprise smash hit, but the sequels, reboots, and cash-in merchandising inevitably produced steadily declining marginal returns. Thanks to the beauty of capitalism, the market corrected the studio’s gross mismanagement of the franchise.

To really hook the fans, Williams wants to recruit the original star, Billy Presler, or at least pick her brains. Several characters refer to her as the “Norma Desmond of horror,” because after starring as the first film’s final girl, she retired into seclusion. After finally booking a meeting, Williams is surprised to learn Presley lives in Camp Tivoli, the old campsite where the original movies were filmed.

As the night goes on, Presley convinces Williams to reveal more about herself rather than vice versa. Yet, they also seem to develop a bond and maybe even a mutual attraction. That doesn’t mean Camp Tivoli isn’t still dangerous. Presler herself suggests the contrary. She claims to believe the franchise’s psycho slasher, “Little Death” is, in some sense, “real” and wants to make a new movie.

Camp Miasma gets very meta, in mostly inventive ways. However, just like Schoenbrun’s previous film, I Saw the TV Glow, the promising premise is undermined by a disappointing third acts that dispel all the tension and suspense. With both films, Schoenbrun tries to “deconstruct” the assembled horror tropes, at the expense of the horror.

It is a shame, because Gillian Anderson delivers one of the best genre performances of the year, which deserved a better executed landing. Anderson is wonderfully flamboyant and seductive as Presley, but also weirdly worldly and grounded, at least by horror movie standards. Dylan Baker is also absolutely hilarious in a small, but pitch-perfect appearance as Jeffrey, the ultra-crass studio executive.

Hannah Einbinder is convincingly neurotic as Williams, but Schoenbrun overloads her with psychological baggage, to the degree that her potential relationship with Presley defies credibility. It is hard to accept a diva like Presley showing interest in anyone with so little sense of self. Frankly, this film devolves into more of an exercise in wish fulfillment than an effort to scare the audience. That might be perfectly fine, except Camp Miasma bills itself as a horror movie.

Regardless, the retro backstory is spot-on, while the meta business is intriguing, until it takes precedence over the slasher elements. The resulting viewing experience is frustrating, because fans will find themselves watching a potentially great movie that inexplicably decides not to succeed. Perhaps eventually worth a try on streaming platforms, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is too inconsistent and ultimately not sufficiently scary to recommend when it opens this Friday (8/7) in theaters.