Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Review
Horror is where I feel the most at home with art. Everything about slashers has been embedded in my DNA since I watched Scream from the hallway of my mother’s home when I was around 6 years old. The infamous garage door killing scene fundamentally changed me and made me into something different. There was something viscerally captivating to me from that day forward about horror, but slashers at the top. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma understands that piece of who I am in ways I never thought I would see on screen. Jason, Freddy, and all of those monsters become a part of us and define us in different ways as we evolve through our lives. Jane Schoenbrun’s film isn’t just a love letter to the slashers genre but an exploration of its very DNA.
In the real world, we’re watching a new space race to make a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. It feels so apt to be following that while Camp Miasma is going to be in theatres following Hannah Einbinder’s character bringing new life to the “zombie” IP of Camp Miasma and its slasher, Little Death. The film follows her as she visits the original film’s final girl, who has become a recluse at the very camp where the original film was made.
Camp Miasma is built up through the film to be a tentpole franchise with a cornucopia of references to real-world tropes and series evolutions. There are so many little cheeky jokes like having the franchise go to space like Leperchaun and Friday the 13th that got a pop out of me like you wouldn’t believe. But it isn’t a film that is just making references for the love of the game, but because it’s building its own DNA right before your eyes. By the end of the film, you will feel like Camp Miasma has been there as long as your Nightmares, Chain Saw Massacres, and other skeletons that loom in your closet. It’s such a fun demonstration of what horror films are while still being a brilliant story-building element in an extremely sharp film.
Director Jane Schoenbrun, cinematographer Eric Yue, and editor Graham Mason make one of the sharpest films in the horror catalog to date. There are some transitions that will blow the minds of deep-dive horror fans, with one burn-through transition that left me keeled over from how perfect it was for the flavor of 80’s slasher. Horror is built on tension just like comedy, and sex, which is why the sharp cuts between fear, horniess, and humor make this a stand-out film. Every moment in Camp Miasma has you on your toes for what’s about to come next, which is why every beat hits like a Mack truck. The clean, quick edits between shots make everything hit that much harder, as the film dances between frames with poise and love for the genre it is toying with.
The most essential element of a good slasher is the slasher itself. Little Death does not disappoint in the slightest. When we finally get to see a large chunk of the original Camp Miasma, we are gifted with a sequence of the slasher’s origin where Jack Haven gives a really moving and harrowing performance before we even see them in their slasher get-up. It’s reminiscent of the films that dealt with queerness in a villainous way, but that has been reframed by modern understandings. It’s going to be on my mind for a long time because it humanizes a “monster” in such a heartbreaking way. For Slashers to work, you must also root for the killer because there is a reason why they are doing what they do.
Not since Jason X and Freddy VS Jason have I seen kills as bombastic and flamboyant as Camp Miasma. That is the highest praise I can give a film because I love over-the-top kills. Little Death’s look from the costume designer Kendra Terpenning is top-notch. Getting to see a one-cut kill sequence with one of the most bonkers song choices of all time puts Camp Miasma in a contender spot for the best slasher of modern cinema for me.
I have shied away from so much of the film, like the love story, the sex, and so many other elements that make this a 5-star film, but it’s because I want you to watch it. I want you to live Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma through your own eyes without spoilers. There are a million things in this film I could dig into, like the direct reference to Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th or the character actors who pop up throughout, but I have to hold it in.
I can’t go having all my horror movie guts gushing all over you before you get to see the film. I will be revisiting this film as often as I visit other cinematic masterpieces like Jason X because it understands that we become those things we love in so many ways beyond explanation.
