Production designers Brandon Tonner-Connolly and Matt Hyland turned to the specific aesthetics of 1980s slasher cinema and gothic romance to build the world of the film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. The film stars Gillian Anderson and is directed by Jane Schoenbrun. It follows a character tasked with reviving a horror franchise at a defunct summer camp.
To capture a dreamlike quality, the design team relied on techniques like matte glass painting. These glass plates placed in front of the camera added fairytale-like mountains to the backgrounds of the Vancouver Island locations. The production team wanted to pull viewers into a self-contained storybook environment that contrasted with the film's earlier scenes.
Working on location meant sourcing props from local sources, such as a taxidermy shop found on a rural road. This hunt for set pieces added an unexpected layer of reality to the project, as the designers gathered items to decorate a run-down gas station that appears in the film. These props were not chosen for accuracy, but rather for how well they fit the mental landscape of a classic 80s horror production.
Other design influences included visual cues from movies like Friday the 13th and Halloween, alongside the dramatic tone of gothic romances like Bram Stoker's Dracula. Some sets, such as the Flesh Palace, incorporated modern technology alongside traditional design. A 3D model was used to export complex, veiny wall shapes directly to a robotic carver, which cut the final structures out of foam.
Tonner-Connolly and Hyland aimed to design spaces that felt real for the actors moving through them. By focusing on small details and a cohesive visual language, they created a fully realized environment where every drawer could be opened and every object had a specific role in the story.