Jane Schoenbrun returns to the screen with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, a meta-horror comedy that attempts to pick apart the tropes of 1980s slasher films. The story follows Kris Williams, a director hired to reboot a moribund horror franchise, who tracks down the original scream queen, Billy Presley, to get the project off the ground. Gillian Anderson plays the reclusive Presley, who lives in a shrine to her past work and insists that the franchise monster is a force that can be summoned through desire.
Schoenbrun, known for the atmospheric depth of previous works like I Saw the TV Glow, approaches this project with a more playful and absurdist tone. The script is packed with references and self-aware jokes about the genre, positioning the film as a critique of how modern filmmakers interact with older, often problematic source material. While the film includes a standout flashback sequence that captures the haunting appeal of early childhood exposure to horror, the overall tone leans into a specific type of internet-native humor that may alienate viewers looking for the emotional stakes found in the director’s earlier projects.
At its core, the film acts as a conversation between the uptight, intellectualized perspective of the younger director and the raw, performative style of the aging star. Anderson and co-star Hannah Einbinder navigate a dynamic where the mentor pushes the filmmaker to move beyond her academic analysis and embrace the visceral nature of the horror genre. The film is less about traditional scares and more about the interplay of power, obsession, and the legacy of disreputable cinema.
Critics of the genre may find the meta-commentary familiar, as the film enters a crowded field of movies that have spent the last thirty years deconstructing slasher tropes. Despite the polished performances and occasional flashes of visual brilliance, the narrative occasionally struggles to move past its own cleverness. For audiences interested in the evolution of horror discourse, it provides a sharp, if somewhat exhausting, look at how we recycle our cultural fears.