My quick rating – 6.4/10. After years of half-baked sequels, the Camp Miasma franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection. But when she visits the original’s star, a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium. And Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is born.
It starts with a shaky first-person view of some heavy breather wandering around a film shoot. Cut to a couple walking in the forest, where they are attacked by someone wearing what appears to be a cube on his head. The first victim gets stabbed into a blood geyser, which is really the only way I can describe it, while the woman is then speared to death in a bloody outrage. As the title appears over this weird-looking killer, I can already tell I am going to enjoy this #Shocktober Cannes Film Festival treat.
The credits show us the Camp Miasma trilogy covers from their VHS releases, and keen horror fans will recognize plenty of Friday the 13th-inspired designs. The ads also ask, “What ever happened to Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson?)” We will get that answer shortly. For now, we also get to peruse the merchandise featuring the square-headed killer, Little Death (Jack Haven). There is some great horror nostalgia hiding in those credits, so pay attention. I rewound them because apparently I have nothing better to do.
The story begins on Tuesday, and right away the movie seems determined to make everyone look suspicious. That music isn’t exactly helping. We meet Kris (Hannah Einbinder) on her way to visit the reclusive star. By Wednesday, she is at the infamous Camp Tivoli, where some of the movies were filmed. And considering I lived about 40 minutes from Crystal Lake, IL, you damn well know I took a trip out there to see it. Even though the city had nothing to do with the movies. Story for another review.
Kris meets Billy to discuss her ideas and her sexuality. It gets late and snowy, so she stays, and we eventually hit Thursday, which is where I’ll stop with the days before this turns into a calendar.
The casting is great, including her agent, played by Sarah Sherman from Saturday Night Live. I loved the grainy footage from the previous Camp Miasma movies that Kris and Billy rewatch. We see a young Kris, played by Amanda Fix, learning about and trying to survive Little Death. I suspect there is considerably more going on with Billy’s relationship to these old movies than simple nostalgia.
Jane Schoenbrun is clearly a horror buff, filling the movie with subtle references. That Return of the Living Dead reference isn’t exactly subtle, but I’ll allow it. I enjoyed this journey through self-discovery much more than I Saw the TV Glow, although this is just as self-indulgent. I’m not going to pretend I can decipher all the personal shit Schoenbrun may be working through, but there is plenty of it.
The effects are often practical for that ’80s feel, with some digital enhancement blended in well enough that I didn’t care. The kills are fun. That tetherball kill was great. These people really like shooting blood out of things.
The acting is good, especially between Anderson and Einbinder. The film comments on its own attempts to distance itself from slasher clichés while ironically embracing those same tropes by the conclusion.
And it works. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is clearly trying to be more than a standard slasher, but thankfully never forgets that a weird guy with a cube on his head murdering people is still a pretty damn good time. It’s very well made, bloody, funny, and occasionally far too pleased with itself. The ending also gives us a wonderfully relaxed sequel tease without beating us over the head with it.
I’m not demanding another Camp Miasma and judging by Schoenbrun‘s mood in this flick, I won’t be getting one.
But I wouldn’t complain if I did.
