Horror_Movies_Camp Miasma
I am a self professed horror connoisseur, especially when it comes to trashy 80's slashers. I grew up on them. I literally have finger paintings from when I was a kid where my mom wrote on the back "Jackie said she painted her two best friends Beetlejuice and Freddy Krueger". I love the camp of it all, the taboo, the ingenuity of practical effects and the exploration of the body in such extreme settings. Its a genre that is already so far outside of the acceptable that it becomes a vessel of exploration for other taboo topics. You demolish one barrier to transcend niceties then an open plain for discussion presents itself. Horror as a genre has always served as a safe space to experience and confront difficult topics like death, sex, identity, loss, etc. that we are unable to confront safely in reality.
I recently had the pleasure of watching Jane Schoenbrun's film Teenage Sex & Death At Camp Miasma. The movie follows director Kris (Hannah Einbinder) as she is tasked with creating a sequel to an 80's slasher "Camp Miasma" after multiple unsuccessful sequels had been made (if it don't make double digits was it even a classic?). Kris travels to a remote town where the original Camp Miasma is located in pursuit of casting the original film's final girl Billy (Gillian Anderson) who has become an eccentric recluse (very Shelley Duvall/Sunset Boulevard of her). The film devolves into a surrealist exploration of sexuality, desire, and being honest with oneself all wrapped up in a campy bloodbath. The killer is named "little death" a reference to the French "Les Petit Mort" used as a euphemism for an orgasm.
The film uses the "virginal final girls" trope of most slasher horror films as a cultural back drop to critique how we approach sexuality and the darkness that can come with the denial of one's desires. Amazingly, it does all of this without dismantling and shaming the audience for liking those types of films in the first place. Before we get into the "flesh and fluids" of the film I want to appreciate the details used to pay homage to the slasher films that came before. From the merchandise for Camp Miasma being direct reworkings of Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th franchises' many merchandise endeavors, to name drops from some of the greats like Heather Langenkamp and of course the legendary Felissa Rose, to the fleshy VHS Videodrome scene this movie gets it. The original Camp Miasma film poster is a replica of the film poster for the 1981 slasher The Burning which Gillian Anderson's character also references in the movie at some point. The easter eggs are so fun to catch and point out. As a fan of the genre it feels like my trust was being earned by someone who shared the same love for these films as I do. The love for these films really comes through in the details. This love helps the critique feel more like a friend giving a hot take rather than a morality lecture which happens so often, and never achieves the intellectual dialogue these contexts deserve.
Kris and Billy become close quickly and during one intimate conversation Kris describes not being able to climax without mentally being outside of herself and imagining being someone else. Billy understands the expression and gives Kris a safe space to explore what she desires but also disassociates herself from. Through her repression her desires became more and more taboo to the point of wanting to be the final girl and experience what Billy describes from so long ago while filming the original Camp Miasma. As a queer somewhat masc presenting lesbian, these explorations in the film really resonated with a sexuality I still sometimes struggle with. What is true intimacy versus sex and what does it mean to surrender oneself to one's desires?
The experience of growing up as a girl can be demeaning and convoluted with contradictory expectations. Be prudish, but also presentable enough to be desired. Be meek, but also capable of taking care of another person. Sex becomes a gauge of a girls' virtuosity, while also being the gaze from which we are perceived from. I remember trying to emulate the masculinity I saw in my father while excluding and denying any part of myself that seemed too feminine. This emulation became misogynistic in the ways I viewed women, sexuality, and femininity. Even though as a lesbian I loved women I also felt levels of almost slight disdain towards them and their feminized expression of sexuality. Their desires even for me were dirty because they were not in some position of control. In reality it was my own self repression and self loathing that I was projecting onto other women. It took years for me to accept my personal expressions of femininity after realizing it was my denial causing such dark and distancing beliefs. The uncomfortableness with myself translated to similar disassociations during intimate encounters. It isn't until Kris voices her true desires and Billy helps to manifest them during the ultimate slasher death chase that Kris releases her inhibitions and achieves a very bloody "little death".
I really appreciate the final chase outfit for its nod to Jeanine Taylor's character's death in the first Friday the 13th. I believe it is especially fitting as the outfit Kris chooses because of its exploitative-ness, but also for Jeanine herself who described having trouble finding work after having taken the role. We all wait for the obligatory tit shot in classic slasher films but then want to demean the women afterwards for their willingness to bare all as part of their craft. It feels like something was reclaimed for Jeanine in how the outfit is used as a tool of liberation and is celebrated in this film rather than its origins as an exploitative mechanism. This is part of why intentionality is so important in making an impactful film. The details really matter.
If you have or are planning to watch Camp Miasma, please please please watch Sleepaway Camp (1983). Felissa Rose who plays the main character in the first film is one of the sweetest celebrities you will ever meet. Whenever we go to conventions if she is there we say hi, she will remember you. The film has gotten slack for its portrayal of trans-ness, with people in the queer community split on whether the representation is positive, negative, or somewhere in between. I've sat in on many panels and to each their own, but I believe that horror and camp are the genre of the exploration. I will do a post on Sleepaway Camp at some point, but I think it is important enough to mention it in regards Teenage Sex & Death in Camp Miasma. The themes of repression do mirror each other in some ways. "Little Death" (Jack Haven) is also described as trans in the movie which is what leads to bullying and their death, which then leads to the birth of the villain.
This film is fun and surreal. The lines blur so deeply between the fantasy and reality of Kris and Billy's experience. It reminds me of a quote I once heard that goes something like this "people use the term Lynchian to describe anything they don't understand" but in the best sense I do believe this film to have earned the title. Films don't need to be understood down to the individual frame to be felt. A quote from David Lynch when asked to elaborate on why he described Eraserhead as his most spiritual film he simply replied "no". I think Jane Schoenbrun is carrying on that legacy with so many of the interview dialogues I have seen and I am absolutely here for it. When asked why they chose Counting Crows' Long December for an unforgettable scene Jane explains she's always been a fan and the lyrics sort of express an uplifting future, but mostly she just liked it. I can only speculate on the HVAC helmet worn by Little Death, but so much symbolism is packed into this fun, bizarre ode to slashers and queer sexuality, I think everyone should watch it for themselves to pick apart the synchronicities.
If you love slashers, easter eggs, surrealism, and Gillian Anderson giving off queer safe space to get freaky vibes check out Teenage Sex & Death in Camp Miasma. I loved it. Is it a perfect film, no, but who wants perfect when you can get texture and depth. I don't need to know every detail about "why the curtains are blue" to know that the shade moved me. This films does that, it gives you that safe space to explore deeper meanings on the pretext of a casual conversation about slasher films. The film wasn't finished when the after credits scene ended it stayed with me, in my thoughts, asking for further exploration. Why does it seem so much easier to watch a gory camp decapitation rather than a female climax? 4/5 bloody spears!
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