A director (Hannah Einbinder) making a slasher sequel is determined to cast the franchise’s fan-favorite original star (Gillian Anderson), whom she discovers living in the abandoned sleepaway camp from the first film. Anderson (X Files, The Crown) delivers a decadent, knockout performance as the quintessential “final girl” living in neurotic isolation. Einbinder (Hacks) brings the deadpan wit, vulnerability, and mounting obsession to a protagonist who is as funny as she is deeply affecting.
Written and directed by Chatham’s own Jane Schoenbrun, this surreal, psychosexual, blood-soaked horror-comedy hat tips everything from Sunset Boulevard to the very best and worst of 1980s horror classics. As Schoenbrun told IndieWire at Cannes—where Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma won the Queer Palm—the film is “Portrait of a Lady on Fire if it was set during a Friday the 13th sequel.” Schoenbrun’s breakthrough I Saw the TV Glow (2024) was one of Sundance’s buzziest recent hits.
UPDATE: We are thrilled to announce that in October, Jane Schoenbrun will be FilmColumbia 2026’s festival honoree! They will be feted at the annual Kick-Off Party on opening night, Oct. 16. The festival runs for ten full days of pre-release, upcoming films through Oct. 25. Advance-access and discount Crandell member tickets go on sale on September 25! For more information about FilmColumbia, click here.
“This picture is, in part, an attempt to assuage guilt at enjoying the teen-camp slasher at its most misogynistic and transphobic. It is also, as the director would admit, an amusing send-up of where they now find themselves.” — Donald Clarke, The Irish Times
“As sexy as movies come, all the way through its final climax.” — Tomris Laffly, Elle Magazine
Jane Schoenbrun
Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder, Patrick Fischler, Sarah Sherman, Jack Haven, Eva Victor, Dylan Baker, Zach Cherry
United States, United Kingdom, Canada