Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review: Laughing in the face of elevated horror

Queer horror fans have a complicated relationship to the genre.

Horror cinema is a place where we have seen ourselves reflected, but often as villains.

From the flamboyant mad scientists of James Whale's Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein to the sapphic vampires of Dracula's Daughter , to the trans-coded killers of Sleepaway Camp and The Silence of the Lambs, LGBTQ+ characters shimmer throughout the fabric of the horror canon.

While such problematic portrayals might feel like antiques, they've nonetheless shaped the genre and generations of queer horror fans.

And for these folks, American filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun has made Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Written and directed by Schoenbrun, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma celebrates the slashers and, through that, explores the complicated feelings of loving a genre that doesn't reliably love you back.

But that's not all.

They also offer a radical tonal shift from their moody films We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow , delivering a comedy that is part horny psychosexual thriller and part campy parody.

The result is a film that is rollicking in queer joy, blood spray, and irreverent humor.

Yes, it's meta, smart, and challenging genre norms.

But calling Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma "elevated horror" is to miss its point.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a story of love, sex, and perversion.

Jack Haven is Little Death in "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma." Credit: MUBI Hacks' Hannah Einbinder stars as Kris, a 29-year-old queer filmmaker whose Sundance success has earned her a shot at relaunching the long-dead Camp Miasma slasher franchise.

Like with I Saw The TV Glow, Schoenbrun creates a deep wealth of lore and fandom merch to flesh out the fictional IP within this story.