Schoenbrun: Camp Miasma Is Rom-Com First, Horror Second
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- Jane Schoenbrun's third feature "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" — starring Hannah Einbinder as an indie director making a slasher sequel and Gillian Anderson as the reclusive original star — is now in theaters via Mubi.
- Schoenbrun conceived the film after their partner told them to "do something really fun and really gay" following the emotionally draining "I Saw the TV Glow," and it emerged from a post-transition sexual awakening and coming-of-age.
- The director frames the film as a romantic comedy first, with horror as "seasoning put onto the soufflé of romance I'm baking," expanding their tonal range beyond the impressionistic horror of their two prior features.
- The bloodbath sequence is set to Counting Crows' "Long December," chosen over R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" for its "well-earned, resilient triumph" and the repeated word "Hollywood"; production required 100+ hours of meetings on wardrobe, rigging, and practical/CGI coordination.
- Einbinder and Anderson's chemistry wasn't confirmed until three days before production, when they rehearsed together for the first time at a plastic table with Schoenbrun filming on a cellphone.
- Junk food functions as a thematic motif throughout — including an erotically charged KFC chicken tenders scene between Kris and Billy — representing what Schoenbrun calls their "low-culture, high-culture dichotomy" and ritual of comfort amid scary content.
- Schoenbrun's three features map directly to their transition: "We're All Going to the World Fair" (realizing they were trans), "I Saw the TV Glow" (courage to transition), and now "Camp Miasma" (exploring sex after dysphoria healed).
Why it matters: Schoenbrun's pivot from the austere impressionistic horror of "I Saw the TV Glow" into an explicit comedy/rom-com — backed by a Mubi theatrical run and a Counting Crows needle drop timed to decapitations — reframes a fast-rising trans filmmaker's career arc and signals that post-transition queer cinema can claim the rom-com as serious ground, not just trauma allegory.
