Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
August 14th, 2026
MOVIE: TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA
STARRING: HANNAH EINBINDER, GILLIAN ANDERSON, PATRICK FISCHLER
DIRECTED BY: JANE SCHOENBRUN
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 112 MINUTES
Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s first film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, was a creepy internet-horror exercise that wasn’t entirely my taste. Her follow-up, I Saw the TV Glow, was a big step forward: a story about suburbia, identity, TV fandom, isolation, and growing up without a connection to others. I saw it at SXSW, which was the perfect venue for it, but it still wasn’t a film that blew me away in the way it did other critics. Schoenbrun’s third film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, is the one that I finally get. It’s a combination of many things: it’s about horror franchises; it’s about a woman finding herself through her art and a connection with a reclusive star; and it’s about identity and how cinema shapes our culture. It is also one of the best movies of 2026. It may have taken some time, but I finally understand the love for Jane Schoenbrun, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a hypnotizing expression of great cinema.
The main character is Kris (Hannah Einbinder), a young, up-and-coming independent film director who has burst onto the scene with a Sundance hit. She’s been tapped to direct the reboot of Camp Miasma, a slasher series in the vein of Friday the 13th, centered around a stalking character called Little Death. The original introduced the world to Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the final girl, who has now become a recluse in the vein of Norma Desmond. Kris is inspired to revive the series with Billy back in the fold. These aspirations bring Kris to snowy mountains in the middle of nowhere, to the original Camp Miasma and Billy’s private getaway. When the two connect, they go down a winding path of self-discovery, hypnotic terrors, and art becoming dangerously close to reality.
If any director can be compared to what Schoenbrun does, it would have to be David Lynch, but that comparison can also cloud Schoenbrun’s originality. What makes this film so good is her creativity, crafting an imaginary slasher series and giving the audience all of its details in such a short amount of time. On top of that creativity is the visual style, where the isolated mountainside looks almost like a diorama, similar to The Grand Budapest Hotel. Alongside these attractive visual touches, Schoenbrun creates her own kind of millennial Mulholland Drive, overflowing with spectacular needle drops while digging into how a person’s sexual awakening can set them on a complicated path of emotions. Schoenbrun does a spectacular job of highlighting how our formative teenage years can set us on a particular path, and how discovering oneself is a journey that never truly ends.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma may be a mouthful of a title, but it’s a bursting and brilliant expression of art. The performances from Einbinder and Anderson are revelatory, with both playing characters at very different stages of life, from self-discovery in our mid-30s to the ways celebrity can corrupt one’s growth. It’s also an excellent dissection of the horror genre through a woman’s perspective, examining how the genre has used women as devices while also empowering them in new ways. The reality is that Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is worthy of multiple viewings, and each time will reveal something new inside all of us. Consider me a fan.
4 STARS
TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 14TH, 2026.
Written by: Leo Brady
