For those of you tired of reference/homage-heavy cinema where the director is constantly tipping their hat to their favorite directors - this might not be the movie for you. As much as I love a good side-by-side comparison I find myself getting sick of it.
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma is an exception. Jane Schoenbrun gets a pass with her latest film. The basic plot centers around a young queer filmmaker, "Kris", tasked with rebooting/revamping a fictious horror franchise about a trans serial killer. The franchise started in the 80s when trans and queer elements in film were treated problematically. The studio responsible for the film and it’s sequels thinks hiring a younger queer director would make the franchise, and it’s queer elements, more current.
So…a film about rebooting a slasher franchise directed a cinephile filmmaker (Schoenbrun) known for putting references in her movies (click here and here to read my thoughts Jane on Schoebrun’s other films). If you go in to a movie like this expecting to
not get an obvious nod or a tip of a hat to something like
Friday The 13th then you’re being disingenuous.
Referencing something like
Friday The 13th is an easy layup.
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| Friday The 13th / Teenage Sex and Death at Miasma |
is full of intentional nods to everyone from David Cronenberg and Bergman…
I just find the glow of a screen to be appealing. It's something that I very naturally gravitate toward, in the way that David Cronenberg gravitates toward body horror - Jane Schoebrun, The Hollywood Reporter
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| Videodrome / Teenage Sex and Death at Miasma |
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| Videodrome / Teenage Sex and Death at Miasma |
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| Persona / Teenage Sex and Death at Miasma |
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| Persona / Teenage Sex and Death at Miasma |
To David Lynch and Shinya Tsukamoto
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Tetsuo The Ironman / Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
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Between when I was a kid and watched Twin Peaks for the first time and when the show got rebooted in 2017, I just had recurring nightmares about it- Jane Schoenbrun, Inverse.com
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Twin Peaks / Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
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I’m a big fan of thinking of a film as infinitely deep. I think I got that from [David] Lynch - Jane Schoenbrun, Letterboxd
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Inland Empire / Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
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All four filmmakers have explored topics like body horror, body dysmorphia, gender reassignment, queerness and more. It makes sense that a filmmaker like Schoebrun would pull from these folks. Her films deal with a lot of the same topics.
These influences are also connected to each other as Bergman's imagery coincidentally influenced Lynch who influenced Tsukamoto. Tsukamoto was also heavily inspired by Cronenberg. Cronenberg and Lynch have always been compared to each other or mentioned in the same writings and reviews for decades.
I acknowledge that some of my comparisons are a little surface level but when you consider everything I've laid out - even the most seemingly surface-level comparisons have a good amount of depth no matter how basic the similarities may seem at first glance.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is really a reassessment of the themes in
Sleepaway Camp (1983). The backstory of the killer in the Camp Miasma franchise, "Little Death", was raised both male and female by their parents. In
Sleepaway Camp, we come to find out that the killer is trans. I am greatly simplifying the plots to both films in hopes you will seek them out if you haven’t seen them. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – I’m not a fan of movies being made out of ironic/cynical film twitter or letterboxd talking points. But, again, this is the exception.
Sleepaway camp found a new audience years after it’s initial release. Young queer and open-minded cinephiles took to platforms like twitter, blogs and various podcasts to reassess what they felt were queer themes in the film. Every once in a while a young generation of film fans discovers an older film with a plot or subplot that was ahead of it’s time and not handled correctly by the film’s initial audience. Sometimes it takes young millennials or Gen Zers to catch something that Baby Boomers or Gen-Xers didn’t catch. Trans stories in film are still a bit taboo and/or misunderstood in 2026 so imagine a 40+ year old movie like
Sleepaway Camp being exposed to mainstream audiences expecting to see another
Friday the 13th.
There is a very meta aspect to this movie. It’s clear that elements of Kris represents Jane Schoenbrun. Kris trying to breathe new life in to a slasher film with queer themes is clearly Schoenbrun herself working this all out with her own movie. Hannah Einbinder's performance as "Kris" also mirrors her character in
Hacks (an aspiring sexually fluid filmmaker that gets in to a complicated relationship with an older established female celebrity).
It’s no mystery that I’m a Jane Schoenbrun fan and
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is no different. This is her most ambitious project to date. But it isn’t for everyone. I think “outsiders” of all kinds will gravitate towards this in the same way they did to Schoenbrun’s previous films. I feel like when the dust settles on this there will be a huge generational contrast between how this it's received. Again – the young millennials and Gen-z folk that I referenced earlier with appreciate this while Baby Boomers and older Gen-xers might jus brush this off as nonsense. Considering I just missed Gen-x and am one of those older millennials raised by Baby Boomers that feels like they don’t have any connection to younger millennials – perhaps that’s why I have a potentially unique perspective on this movie.
