Film writer and director Kris Williams seeks to find recluse Billie Presley, the original star of the first Camp Miasma film in 1980 to be the lead once more. However, will the search lead Kris to uncover more than just her star but more her own deep rooted and restrained sexual desires.
* Full disclosure: This film is heavily based on the awakening of director Jane Schoenbrun’s own sexual difficulties and desires. *
As our two main leads we have Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) playing sexually repressed Kris Williams. A young filmmaker with the quest of seeking and signing the now reclusive but original star of the initially successful Camp Miasma series. We also have Billie Presley played by Gillian Anderson, with her southern American dialect, who despite her age, 40 years later has been sourced to be the ‘final girl’ once more of this latest slasher-style film. To be the spark that reignites the series back to its full potential after waning through years of apparently dreadful remakes.
Alongside our leads we also have Amanda Fix (Lowlifes) as a young Billie Presley giving us our ‘final girl’ view of the original film from 1980. And last but not least Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow) as our masked slasher ghost villain “Little Death”. With much to ingest there is much to the story that purposefully, and also ambiguously dips in and out of the slasher style Miasma film and the current ‘reality’ Kris and Billie find themselves in. Set in the Pacific NorthWest but more importantly on the abandoned set of the Camp Miasma series where Billie currently lives, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is partly a retelling of the fictional slasher series. What is more important here is what Little Death actually refers to, which is ‘la petite mort’. Translated, this refers to a brief loss of consciousness during an orgasm.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is not just a journey to find our ‘final girl’ but actually more to do with one’s own personal discovery during our sometimes confused younger and ever changing brain transitions. An awakening of our true selves that for some people can sometimes be painfully repressed. With beautifully graphic, wildly colourful trailers showing over a number of weeks and then losing any showing times at all, I jumped on the only screening available. Going in comparatively blind I dove into a film that is actually very meta with its use of reality versus fiction. The spear death scenes are purposefully graphic with a comedic tone and are if anything a secondary element to a clever view on all of the aforementioned above. With a colour palette that dips in and out of comparatively muted 1980’s grainy slasher movies to more modern surrealist tones of deep red fake blood and owning the look within certain scenes, you will be in for a fun ride that whilst tricky to write the ever changing reality versus fiction, presents us with a journey that knows where it wants to go.
Gillian Anderson with her dual-national accent crossover this time relies on her soft, southern drawl which fits the role perfectly as someone who also knows what the camera is asking for. With long wide shots at the dining table through to moments in front of the open fire, this is a treat for both the eyes and the ears, with the deaths being entirely secondary to the pivotal central storyline. Go in cold and leave satiated with a film that not only mocks the overly used slasher genre but more importantly takes the gay world seriously in these thoroughly more modern times.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
