Don’t believe the hype. (Don’t) watch the trailer. Photograph: MUBI
American filmmaker Jane Schoenburn gives home video a global theatrical run with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
The camerawork is a notch steadier than the DV footage of the early millennium, and the plot feels like something that could have been cooked up on the fly with the right substances.
But while a bedroom director might be content filming the first fuck or getting wasted—doing it only for shits and kicks, with the footage never meant to be seen—Schoenburn’s satanistic vision aims at global box-office dominance, with young adults as the casualties.
Schoenburn—or they, as they prefer to be called—stomps the viewer with gore and titties, yet leaves the washed-up actress in her 60s on the bed, still dressed, to deliver sexual services.
The air is thick with silent terror.
There’s a man named Little Death hiding at the bottom of the lake, with an air-conditioning diffuser unit mounted on his head. If that’s hard to imagine, it’s basically a rusty box.
Once he rises like the Antichrist, the slasher stalks the shore in plastic overalls, spear in hand. On his bloody trek, he finds a dumb-as-hell teen who typically says, “What’s up, dude!” Little Death most often drives his spear into the gut, but can also sever a head in a massive shower of blood.
There’s no need to explain the plot in further detail. Nor is there any need to mention the cast by name, out of respect for them, should they ever find better work after this cinematic dreck.
‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ premieres in cinemas on August 7.
FILM DETAILS
Title: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Patrick Fischler
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Screenwriter: Jane Schoenbrun
Production year: 2026
Running time: 112 minutes
