Self Discovery Through Slasher Genre

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) - Schoenbrun A mousy, Sundance winning filmmaker Kris (Hannah Einbinder) has been given a chance to direct a reboot of the Camp Miasma, the 80s slasher franchise, reminiscent of Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th, Burning and the like. Miasma franchise is now a butt of a joke to everyone who remembers it being steeped in blatant homophobia, transphobia, gore and titillation of the flesh. Still, it’s a cult classic to diehard horror weirdos.

Kris is keenly aware that her new hot status as an indie darling, plus being a queer filmmaker, landed the job because the studio desperately wants to be seen as woke by hiring them. They understand the fact that the Hollywood ecosystem is a mutual exchange of who's using who.

Under the microscope of a gaggle of Hollywood producers and moneymen, Kris has to get the project off the ground, soon. They are obsessed with the starlet of the first Miasma movie, Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson). They keep watching the VHS copy of the movie over and over again.

In a hilarious pitch zoom meeting with the executives, using their newly earned auteur clout, Kris tries to dictate the project the way they wanted, not in the studio's terms. It doesn’t go well to say the least. While their team tries to smooth over the aftermath, Kris has to convince reclusive Billy to partner up with them to realize the grand vision of the complete and utter transformation of the dead franchise. Little do they know, it is Billy, the Final Girl of the first Miasma movie, who lost her virginity in it, the sultry recluse, ends up helping them to give The Little Death (La Petite Mort - euphemism for orgasm in French), the spear wielding boogie-person of the franchise, the correct backstory and transform them into a sympathetic character.

With two previous somber films, We are All Going to World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, Jane Schoenbrun explored desire, fantasy and missed opportunities in an emotionally resonant search for queer identity. In turn, Camp Miasma is a campy, tongue-in-cheek, gory, meta rendition of nostalgia ridden romp. It’s a tale of self-discovery and joyful celebration of queer sex, guided through the great Gillian Anderson, who embodies Billy, Kris’s desire and myth personified, in the Dolly Parton drawl.

With intentionally fake production design, and the great mix of Bob Ross inspired matte paintings, over the top cartoon violence and campy humor, Schoenbrun seems to be finally letting it loose and just having fun- embracing their queerness fully and sexuality all out in the open, matching the main theme of the movie - self-acceptance and showing who they really are. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is great fun.

Buried Alive

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) - Schoenbrun Jane Schoenbrun's trans identity allegory aside (evidences are aplenty throughout and shouldn't be ignored), I Saw the TV Glow speaks to a very specific group of people who grew up in the 90s, consuming copious amount of late night TV alone. These are not the kids who were cheerleaders, football players, popular kids who bought into the Clinton era fake optimism. They were loners and weirdos who desperately clung to each other when they found one another.

You hoped that there was life beyond the suffocating High School years; you have aspirations and ambitions, to be somebody. But as you grow older, you find life under capitalism is just as suffocating, as if you are being buried alive. This is the feeling Schoenbrun captures so well with I Saw the TV Glow.

It tells Owen (Justice Smith), who befriends Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), an older schoolmate who introduces to the world of late night TV show, Pink Opaque. For Maddy, it's more than just a kid's TV show. It's all consuming religion. The two main characters, Isabel and Tara become extension/cosplay of Maddy and her friend. But after the big boobied friend left her to join the cheerleading squad, timid Owen becomes de facto Isabel. In this show with elaborate mythology, the girls are psychically connected with the matching glowing ghost tattoo on the back of their necks, fighting a figure called Mr. Melancholy.

Owen is fascinated by the TV show, as well as alluring Maddy, but unsure about taking a deep dive in to Pink Opaque, as Maddy's life becomes increasingly blurry between what's real and what's not. Maddy disappears after the show is canceled. The last episode was a cliffhanger - Isabel's heart was ripped out and she was buried alive by Mr. Melancholy.

Life catches up with Owen, working menial jobs and ending up working for an amusement park. As an adult, rewatching the TV show now available on streaming, Owen finds that he remembers it quite different. Now it's a benign kid's stuff.

Maddy's reemergence rattles Owen. She says she has been fighting in the Midnight World the whole time, trying to rescue Isabel/Owen and get their hearts back.

Neon colored, dreamy look captures the sleepless nights of the lonely adolescent in the 90s perfectly. Underlit photography also captures that eerie feeling that something is askew.

There is a divide between what you wanted to be when we were young and what you are now. Just like Schoenbrun's last film We're All Going to World's Fair, I Saw the TV Glow is a sad film that lingers on after days of watching.