Cannes Hit ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ Set For Sydney Film Festival

Jane Schoenbrun’s new queer horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to strong early reviews, ahead of its Australian screening at the upcoming Sydney Film Festival.

The film, which currently holds a 100 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, stars Hacks’ Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.

Directed by trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, the movie follows Kris, a queer filmmaker hired to reboot a fictional 1980s slasher franchise called Camp Miasma. The story centres on Kris becoming increasingly obsessed with Billy Presley, the reclusive actor who played the original film’s “final girl”.

The film has been described by critics as a meta-slasher that explores queer desire, sexuality, fandom and gender identity through horror conventions.

Speaking to Reuters ahead of the Cannes premiere, Schoenbrun said the film was partly inspired by their relationship with older horror movies that have often been criticised for transphobic themes.

“I grew up in love with those films, and I don’t think I’m the only trans person who found themselves oddly comforted by these depictions of the transsexual monster, even while those depictions are obviously very troubling,” Schoenbrun said.

“(They) also instilled in me a deep internalized transphobia that a huge part of early transition involved getting over.”

Reviews from Cannes have highlighted the film’s sapphic elements and its reworking of classic slasher tropes through a queer lens. The story includes an intense relationship between Kris and Billy, while also examining body image, repression and desire.

The film marks Schoenbrun’s follow-up to the acclaimed queer psychological horror film I Saw the TV Glow.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will screen at the Sydney Film Festival, which runs from June 3 to 14.