Film Review: TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA (2026): Jane Schoenbrun Hands This Unique Movie’s Best Scenes Over to the Great Gillian Anderson

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun and starring Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder, Patrick Fischler, Amanda Fix, Ryan McEwen, Eva Victor, Jack Haven, Dylan Baker, Zach Cherry, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Jess McLeod, Sarah Sherman, Kevin McDonald, Arthur Conti, Quintessa Swindell, William Vaughan and Hunter Dillon.

Jane Schoenbrun’s latest, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is like Mother Mary meets Friday the 13th while being crossed with Schoenbrun’s own imaginative ideas and personal touches. This is a film about a slasher movie series featured within the movie that drives the characters to make choices regarding their uncertain futures. Hannah Einbinder playing a character running around in her panties sounds interesting enough on paper, but the movie one-ups that concept with the addition of the wonderful Gillian Anderson who comes up with one of her most iconic performances ever, playing an actress known as Billy, and Anderson winds up topping even her fine work in The House of Mirth.

Sex and death can feel like one and the same, at least according to a couple of key scenes in this movie. Anderson serves as Billy, a one-time legend who appeared in horror films that have that serious Jason Voorhees vibe to them and prove that slasher movies were once a highly sought-after commodity back in their prime. Amanda Fix plays the young Billy and that particular character helps drive home the points of the sex scenes in the slasher movies the film lovingly pays homage to in an over-the-top fashion.

Like in Mother Mary, there’s a character who may come to establish herself back in society after a prolonged break from fame. In this new movie, that character is Anderson’s Billie, as you may have expected. Like Mother Mary, this new affair is also a two-hander with Einbinder’s character, a queer filmmaker named Kris, giving Anderson’s Billy a run for her money in the scene-stealing department with Anderson almost always coming out on top.

Einbinder and Anderson, both, express a wild side to their respective characters in this manic movie and the stars play against the types of characters they’ve played in the past. While Schoenbrun employs excellent music from artists like R.E.M., there are specific moments that are used in the picture that drive home the points the movie makes so well. This film knows the slasher movie like the back of its hands and plays out in sync with the themes it presents.

There are a pair of great scenes set at a gas station convenience store, but the most unforgettable one has our heroines, Billy and Kris indulging in getting candy at the gas station mart that turns Kris on to the greater things in life. These scenes work so well thanks in part to the clerk’s responses to the characters at hand, but also because of the energy that Einbinder and Anderson bring to their complex and, simultaneously delicate, characters.

Camp Miasma, the film’s proposed setting for the slasher movies within the picture, is an obvious homage to Camp Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th films. You could go on all day exploring the symbolism that Schoenbrun uses to tell a tale filled with suspense. Even more so, the movie is complete with multi-faceted, intelligent main characters.

Einbinder brings quite a few zany character traits to the movie in her quirky, but distinct, role. It is Anderson, however, who is more alluring and more able to process her character’s feelings than Einbinder who can ring appropriately stiff at times throughout some major scenes in the movie. Still, when they’re together, this pair is electric, creating chemistry on-screen that is hard to categorize at first until we see exactly where the plot is heading with them towards the end.

This movie toys with the viewer’s imagination whenever it wants to. It creates scenarios that are easy to digest, but not always easy to believe. That’s because of the creative risks the movie takes which are some of the bravest choices made in motion pictures this year. There are obvious shots taken at the slasher genre, but the movie surprisingly loves the movies it pays homage to in more ways than one. The fact that the killer in the movie wears a heavy suit is a throwaway because our typical horror movie psychos didn’t always dress up so much when they went out to kill. Schoenbrun is being showy and sophisticated and audiences will enjoy the results very much.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is an expertly crafted production from a technical standpoint. It looks like it wants to be colorful, aesthetically speaking, and throws in red blood in all its glory whenever necessary to decorate the images in accordance with the themes the movie presents. Patrick Fischler’s character, Rudolph, is excellently utilized in the proceedings as well.

Jane Schoenbrun is a master storyteller and has the most firm grasp on the material here out of any of the previous movies that have been crafted by the very daring filmmaker. Most importantly, this is Einbinder’s time to shine in a movie role that highlights the actress’s quirkiness, above all else. Artists need to be quirky and to get away with the things that happen in this movie, there needs to be complete suspension of disbelief by the film-goer. Just enjoy the images and the interaction between Anderson and Einbinder and you’ll have twisted fun.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Misama can be dark, thematically speaking, but it loves the material it’s working with. By the end, you’ll want to go to a gas station convenience store with your muse or bestie and buy some Jolly Rancher candies. Any summer movie that makes you want to do that is worth seeing, even if the competition is stiff with many choices at the box-office right now. Jane Schoenbrun is a genius and I’m keeping an eye on the next project from this decidedly talented filmmaker. Stay tuned after the end credits of the new film for another scene.

Rating: 8/10

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