In the last few years, director Jane Schoenbrun has managed to become one of the most exciting voices in horror with under-the-radar releases starring newbie actors. But the filmmaker behind 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and 2024’s I Saw the TV Glow is taking a different approach with their sophomore feature: the enchantingly titled Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
To begin with, Schoenbrun tapped X-Files stunner Gillian Anderson and Hacks breakout Hannah Einbinder to star in the sapphic slasher flick alongside a number of other well-known faces. And ahead of its fall release, the comedic, blood-soaked feature has been anything but under the radar. Rather, thanks to a cheeky social media campaign facilitated by its leads and a buzzy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Camp Miasma is one of the most hotly anticipated titles of the year.
Here’s everything you need to know about Schoenbrun’s new film — including its place in the transfeminine, nonbinary director’s body of work — before it hits theaters this fall.
What Is ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ about?
Still from ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’MubiIn the past, Schoenbrun has channeled their coming of age experiences into haunting, supernatural-tinged stories centered on adolescence. But Camp Miasma is decidedly more adult than their past offerings, showcasing its stars locked in a psychosexual descent into lust and madness.
In the film, Einbinder plays as an ambitious young filmmaker named Kris, who’s been tasked with reviving a stale, transphobic slasher franchise and sets her sights on recasting the original film’s final girl, Anderson’s Billy. But Kris’ plans to breathe life into the pulseless IP veer off course when she becomes embroiled in Billy’s reclusive existence on the campground where the franchise was once shot. The film within the film then takes on frightening new layers as Kris embarks on a demented sexual awakening and, as the synopsis reads, “the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium.”
Ahead of Camp Miasma opening this year’s Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, where it earned a six-minute standing ovation, Schoenbrun revealed that the film was inspired by their post-transition relationship with sex. And because of that and its obsession with its characters’ internal narratives, the film feels very much at home in its author’s oeuvre, despite featuring more adult dynamics.
“In this case, this film came from working through a ton of sexual trauma in the early stages of post-transition and learning, after years and years of it feeling completely inaccessible, how to feel good and comfortable in a body that actually felt like my own, after years of internalized transphobia, dysphoria, et cetera,” Schoenbrun told Deadline, explaining that their films are fueled by introspection and characters transfixed by their inner lives.
“When I was on the TV Glow press tour, I remember talking a lot about how I think that in a lot of horror movies, the scary thing — or the thing that is driving the tension of the film — is exterior,” they added, giving the example of a killer chasing someone through the woods. “That kind of movie invests a lot of its narrative energy on the thing that’s coming at you rather than coming from you. And, at least so far in my movies, it’s really felt much more interesting to me for the horror to be more ephemeral and internal, and the same goes for the beauty. Therein lies, I think, the thing that’s so alluring.”
Is ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ a remake?
Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma'MubiCamp Miasma is taken from an original script by Schoenbrun, but like the filmmaker’s previous features, it engages heavily with genre works from the past. Whereas We’re All Going to the World’s Fair riffed on butterfly-effect films and creepypastas, and I Saw the TV Glow toyed with ‘90s horror series like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Camp Miasma mines 20th-century slasher classics like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street for inspiration.
Specifically, Schoenbrun reclaims slasher tropes — like teenage sex begetting death and gender-bending begetting a murderous streak — to challenge the misogyny and transphobia that have long been mainstays of beloved franchise titles. But the film is certainly not a straight-forward exercise in film or gender theory, with the director also celebrating the sick joy that slashers have inspired and continue to inspire among horror fans.
“I’m trying to remake a lot of that imagery in a new way, not so much to be like, ‘Let’s wag our finger at it,’ or talk about how problematic it is, but to be like, ‘Clearly there’s something in these movies that is libidinal, that we keep returning to.’ Clearly it’s some way for us — through mimesis — to have an experience that’s cathartic,” Schoenbrun also told Deadline. “At the same time, when you go back and watch those movies from the ’80s, it can feel a little too misogynistic.”
As a die-hard horror fan themselves, Schoenbrun has a talent for paying tribute to influential works and phenomenons from previous generations, while still turning a critical eye on them. Like their previous features, Camp Miasma — which also engages with cinema’s long fixation on director-star relationships, as well as the more recent trend of bringing “woke” sensibilities to old IP — is both cerebral and thoroughly entertaining as a result.
What is Jane Schoenbrun known for?
'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' star Gillian Anderson and director Jane Schoenbrun
Mubi
In just a few years, Schoenbrun has built a name for themselves with their one-of-a-kind approach to genre filmmaking, which is both academic and visceral. As alluded to above, their films portray horror as something that comes from within, weaving revelations from their own life into person-centered narratives that provoke discussions about gender, self-expression, and societal norms.
In the past, Schoenbrun has tapped relatively unknown young actors to bring those narratives to life, exploring and unpacking horror from the 1990s and 2000s from an adolescent view. But in addition to its very well-known stars, Camp Miasma showcases appearances from a number of established performers, including SNL’s Sarah Sherman and Sorry, Baby’s Eva Victor, alongside fresh faces like Amanda Fix and Arthur Conti.
The very meta casting of its heavy-hitting leads, however, has proven to be perhaps the most enticing element of Camp Miasma ahead of its release. The parallels between the stars and their characters immediately generated enthusiasm among pop culture fanatics — with fans of the recently wrapped Hacks anticipating another charmingly deadpan performance from Einbinder, and The X Files devotees eager to cheer on Anderson ahead of the career-defining work’s own reboot. And the two have played up their May-December dynamic, as well as cashed in on their individual fandoms, by cozying up to each other on the red carpet and in sapphic-panic-inducing social media posts.
When is ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ coming out?
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will open in theaters nationwide August 7 via MUBI. Before that, however, the film will go on a “Camp Is in Session” summer festival tour in June and July, hitting standouts like Newfest Pride, Provincetown Film Festival, Frameline, and Fantasia.
If you don’t have plans to catch the film on tour, you can still get a pre-release peek at the trailer above.
