Gillian Anderson Makes Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma a Delicious Mindfuck: Review

Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun (a recent Consequence Filmmaker of the Year) doesn’t make movies that are easy to unlock, in a way that genuinely seems to be the point. I Saw the TV Glow, their acclaimed blend of pop culture homage and horror, never explicitly explains the central allegory, and their newest movie, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is even more sprawling in its themes and ideas. However, thanks to locked-in, fully committed performances from stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, it’s a movie that makes emotional sense. It’s even a bit of a love story, though who’s in love with who — or what — is up in the air. Like many great modern mindfucks, the premise is relatively simple on the surface: Kris (Einbinder) is a 29-year-old indie filmmaker who’s been given the cynical assignment of resurrecting the Camp Miasma horror franchise. (The studio wants a new “woke” origin story. It’s hard not to imagine Schoenbrun sitting in real-life development meetings where those words were said unironically.) For Kris, this is a dream opportunity for her to explore the feelings she felt when she saw the first movie in the franchise as a young girl. She’s even managed to se...