Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun burst onto the scene quickly. Their 2021 debut, We Are All Going to the World’s Fair, saw a teen drop into a nightmarish online tale. Their second, I Saw the TV Glow, came just 3 years later. It put body horror elements into a story about lifelong fixation on a TV show, retaining the dreamy elements of their first film, keeping plot to a minimum in favor of off-putting vibes. Now, Schoenbrun’s third film changes things up. It’s still horror, and it still has plenty of mood, but plot is brought to the fore.
In the film, Hannah Einbinder’s Kris has been hired for a dream job: to reboot the fledgling slasher franchise Camp Miasma. Most would balk at the offer, but she grew up on the series, and the execs want her, a queer woman, to rehab the series’ transphobic origins. The killer in the films was a boy murdered at a summer camp, who was targeted because his parents raised him to embrace both his feminine and masculine side. Now, with every film, he rises from the lake he was drowned in for some good ol’ gory murders. But Kris isn’t enamored with the series’ main character. Her love comes from the original film’s final girl. More specifically, a look in the final girl’s eyes as the slasher brings about the titular sex and death.
So, to tamp down what she wants to do for the reboot, she visits the actress who played the original film’s final girl, Billy (Gillian Anderson), to see if she’d return for the reboot. Billy quit acting shortly after the original film, and it turns out she never quite left the film behind. She’s taken up residence where the original was filmed and peppers her home with nods to the film. Where Kris ponders intellectual takes on the film’s themes and techniques, Billy has immersed herself in memories and feelings. The pair, when together, eventually warm up to each other, and their perspectives become complementary.
Here is where the film spends the bulk of its time, letting Kris and Billy dance around each other, feeling out exactly what their relationship could become. At first, it’s just a matter of whether Billy will join Kris’ film. But Anderson plays Billy with rakish charm, enticing Kris much more effectively than Kris entices Billy. And here is where Schoenbrun’s previous strengths shine. Vibrant colors abound, as does symbolism hidden in the background of frames. Visually, the film is a glorious blend of the real and fantastical, keeping Schoenbrun’s astute sense of the way media blends into our understanding of the world in front of us. As film and reality collide, Billy’s unusual sense of the world feels more natural, and Kris and the audience fall into the same spell.
Anderson and Einbinder carry the film easily, bringing electricity to the small moments that pass between them. What’s lacking, though, is a complicated story. This is the most Schoenbrun has relied on plot to drive a film, and while they add far more narrative to Camp Miasma then World’s Fair and TV Glow combined, it relies on a progression that’s too obvious to hold your attention.
A key mistake is simply the name of the film franchise’s villain. The slasher is named Little Death, and knowing that, the fact that the slasher genre always mixes sex with death, and that Kris struggles to connect to their sexual side makes the climax of the film readily apparent. There’s still fun to be had along the way, but you always know exactly where the film is heading, right down to its climactic shot.
Luckily, Schoenbrun retains their disregard for explicit answers, and they don’t feel the need to explain exactly how real Billy and Kris’ understanding of the film series is. A late theory from Kris on how Camp Miasma actually works is both fascinating and hilarious, and from there the film abandons telling you whether anything that happens is real or just the imagination of two strange women. You’re supposed to take your cue from the film; what is or isn’t real doesn’t matter. What’s important is how stories affect you, and this is a lesson Schoenbrun remains fixated on.
Release: now in theaters
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Writer: Jane Schoenbrun
Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Jack Haven, Patrick Fischler
Leave a comment