Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 94 · The Punters 60 · Spore Score 87 · How we write our takes

Why The Pros rate it far higher than The Punters

This is one of the biggest Pros vs Punters splits of 2026. The Pros give Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma 94. The Punters give it 60. That is a 34-point gap, and the Spore Score of 87 comes with a fuzzy tag. Critics see a bold, funny, personal film about horror cinema itself. A good share of audiences, many of them lured by the title and the promise of a slasher, found something stranger, slower and far more interested in ideas than in body counts.

What it is

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun made We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, two cult films about identity and screens. This time Hannah Einbinder, from Hacks, plays Kris Williams, a queer film-maker hired to reboot Camp Miasma, a long-running slasher series that began in 1983. Its villain, Little Death, is the ghost of a child who was drowned by hateful campers. Kris knows she has been hired to make a transphobic premise palatable for modern audiences, but she also genuinely loves the films. She tracks down Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who quit the business after playing a camp counsellor in the original, and who now lives on the abandoned campground where it was shot.

What it does well

Anderson is magnificent: warm, sly and slightly unhinged, a woman who has made a whole life out of a film nobody else remembers fondly. Her scenes with Einbinder are funny and oddly romantic. Schoenbrun and cinematographer Eric Yue shot on 35mm film in British Columbia, and the fake 1980s footage, matte paintings and lakeside camp look gorgeous. Underneath the jokes is a serious argument about how horror films from Psycho to Sleepaway Camp turned trans people into monsters, and whether you can love a film that does that. Alex G's music, as in Schoenbrun's earlier work, adds a dreamy edge.

Why The Punters are cooler

It is not really a slasher. The kills are stylised and spread thin, the pace is meandering, and the film is full of in-jokes about film theory, French slang and genre history. If you have not seen the films it is responding to, a lot will go over your head. Some viewers will also simply find it too pleased with itself.

Who it is for

Fans of I Saw the TV Glow, horror nerds who enjoy films about films, and anyone interested in queer cinema. Not for people who want a straightforward Friday night scary movie.

Context

It opened the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in May 2026 and won the Queer Palm there. Mubi financed and distributed it after A24 passed, and it reached US cinemas on 7 August 2026 before arriving on Mubi's streaming service on 2 October.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, with a Spore Score of 87. A brilliant, divisive film that is much more than its title suggests. Side with The Pros if you like your horror clever and personal. Trust The Punters if you just want a scare.