A director making a slasher sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film’s ‘final girl,’ leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.
From the opening credits to the overall setup, the latest from I Saw the TV Glow writer/director Jane Schoenbrun is an intriguing mix of genres, blending horror, comedy, and meta commentary. Hannah Einbinder is Kris, an up-and-coming queer director looking to resurrect a horror franchise (Camp Miasma) that is both problematic and stale. She ventures out to find the original movie’s star, Billy (played as an adult by Gillian Anderson, by Amanda Fix is flashback) to enlist her return to the franchise that made her a star but also sent her into hibernation.
At times ridiculous, but beautifully realized, the movie-within-a-movie Camp Miasma feels like a wholly unique tale that could’ve easily existed in the 80s alongside other horror mainstays like Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, up to and including the film’s main villain Little Death (Jack Haven), with an air vent for a head.
The gore is silly and over the top, extremely so, but the dynamic between Kris and Billy and the issues they are dealing with are fully grounded (until they’re not). Patrick Fischler, Zach Cherry, Dylan Baker, Sarah Sherman and Kevin McDonald pop in for some easy jokes interesting side quests before the movie (kind of wonderfully) just goes completely off the rails.
My biggest gripe is how the movie poster is taken from the final moments of the movie, which isn’t quite a spoiler, but does kind of rob some moments of anticipation and shock. This was similar to the movie HIM last year, which did the exact same thing. Second biggest gripe is how the movie shifts into just outright metaphor when it spent so much effort balancing all its genre-bending tropes at the start.
Jonathan’s grade – B-
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