Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma fully lives up to its title. A campy sapphic slasher fever dream soaked in blood, lust, gummy candy, and queer chaos, the latest film from trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun is exactly the kind of deranged cinema we deserve right now.
Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews and a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, the film stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in a twisted, horny, deeply romantic love letter to queer horror. And honestly? Watching the two of them dripping in blood and sexual tension together feels instantly iconic.
The film also features appearances from queer fan favorites like Jess McLeod, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Jack Haven, turning Camp Miasma into a full-on queer horror playground.
The movie dives deep into the fictional lore behind the Camp Miasma franchise, a long-running slasher series from the 80s, notorious for its transphobic and misogynistic legacy. The original film became a cult classic, but, like many beloved franchises, the sequels slowly devolved into increasingly ridiculous cash grabs, leaving audiences wondering why the IP was ever revived in the first place.
Enter Kris.
Einbinder plays the young queer filmmaker tasked with rebooting the controversial franchise with a more progressive lens. The studio wants to modernize the brand, soften its problematic history, and cash in on “woke horror” by handing the franchise over to a queer director who, bonus, genuinely loves the original movie.
Kris’ obsession with the first Camp Miasma stems from their love for the original final girl, Billy Preston, played by Gillian Anderson in full Southern gothic glam. Billy mysteriously vanished from Hollywood after the original film, and Kris tracks her down hoping to convince her to return to camp. Except that’s exactly where she finds her, living alone at the abandoned camp where the movie was shot.
Anderson is magnetic here. Permanently draped in dark mascara and seduction (and a little chaotic mystery), she proves to be nothing like the tabloids make her out to be. “She’s a stoner,” Kris discovers, and a really cool one.
What starts as a conversation about filmmaking and Billy’s disappearance from the spotlight quickly turns into something much more intimate. Kris opens up about her dissatisfying sex life and strained poly relationship, while Billy introduces her to the intoxicating overlap between filmmaking, fear, desire, and pleasure.
From there, the film spirals beautifully into chaos.
Fried chicken. Geysers of blood. Killer POV shots. Candy binges. Orgasms disguised as murder sequences? Schoenbrun leans completely into the seduction of ’80s horror while literally rewriting its relationship to sexuality, queerness, and female pleasure.
The result is delightfully meta, sapphic, shockingly heartfelt, and wildly funny.
It’s also a major moment for Einbinder, marking her first feature film following her breakout role on Hacks alongside Jean Smart. She absolutely kills it here. Her chemistry with Anderson is electric, bloody good, and impossible to look away from.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is fun. And wet.
