This Problematic Horror Classic Is Key To Understanding 'Camp Miasma's Lore
If there’s one concept in the world of film that’s difficult to explain, it’s the idea of a cult classic. At face value, it’s a film that was either ignored or derided at the time of its release and was seen, in the mainstream’s eyes at least, as a failure, only to gain appreciation after the fact. Back in the day, it was through late-night screenings or movie rentals, but thanks to the internet, discovering underappreciated gems and the communities they’ve developed is easier than ever. In fact, some films, like Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026), are entirely reliant on that.
Everything about the film’s production, from its premise of a queer filmmaker creating a new entry in a cult classic horror series to the visuals that feel like a fever trip of ’80s nostalgia, screams cult classic. However, it also draws from one of the most infamous cult classics of all time. A film that’s still shocking to watch over 40 years after its release. A film that, thankfully, is easy to see on streaming services like Prime Video and Peacock, but will almost certainly not be for everyone. If you truly wish to understand the bizarre psychology of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, then you need to see Sleepaway Camp (1983).
What Is 'Sleepaway Camp' About?
For its time, Sleepaway Camp was written off as a cheap pastiche of Friday the 13th (1980), and in a vacuum, there’s some merit to that claim.
Like Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp is a slasher that takes place at a summer camp where a serial killer is slowly murdering the counselors and staff members who interact with a pair of cousins, Ricky and Angela. Because of Angela’s meek nature, she’s a target of some pretty vicious bullying, and her tormentors usually wind up dead. In between the killings, there’s plenty of your standard summer camp activities, like swimming, playing sports, and awkwardly hanging around at mandatory dances. It’s all very retro, but thanks to the down-to-earth dialogue, it all feels pretty authentic and not at all like a parody of the ‘80s.
But really, what helps separate Sleepaway Camp from other slashers is its infamous ending. It’s one of the most jaw-dropping twist finales in any horror movie, so out there that even if you can tell who the killer ultimately is, you can’t really anticipate how shocking the reveal is. [SPOILER!] The final scene reveals Angela is biologically male, with her aunt raising her as a girl after losing her nephew in the opening boating accident. Because of that, it makes actually discussing the film almost impossible, but the way the ending of Sleepaway Camp was discussed after its release is what Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is interested in.
Why Is 'Sleepaway Camp' A Beloved Cult Classic?
Sleepaway Camp has all of the hallmarks of a cult classic, but a controversial one. Its ending alone made the film divisive, but the particularly brutal violence also gave it an infamous reputation.
Still, to some, Sleepaway Camp served as one of the few LGBT horror movies of the era, and a bold one at that. Keep in mind, this was during a time when slasher films were often considered gratuitous and low-brow, focusing mostly on getting hot women naked to be killed by the slasher du jour. Slashers rarely, if ever, tackled complicated themes like sexual identity or gender in a way that had something meaningful to add. The only other film of its time was A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), a film also lambasted for daring to contain LGBT themes.
In particular, Sleepaway Camp focused on the trans experience, but it was, and still is, incredibly polarizing in its execution. There is evidence to say that Sleepaway Camp plays into a lot of negative stereotypes that trans people still face, making them appear as “other” and something to be feared. Still, there is just as much evidence to make the claim that the way Sleepaway Camp brought attention to an aspect of queer culture is still meaningful, even if its execution is problematic. Few horror movies commit as hard as Sleepaway Camp does, and that helped the film differentiate itself from the glut of mindless slasher shlock being churned out.
How Does 'Sleepaway Camp' Influence 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma'?
If you’re at all familiar with the library of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’s director, Jane Schoenbrun, then it should be obvious how and why Sleepaway Camp slots in as one of Camp Miasma’s inspirations.
Schoenbrun has always played with LGBT themes in their work, focusing in particular on the pre-trans experience. If We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2022) is about gender dysmorphia, and I Saw the TV Glow (2024) is about trans denialism, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is interested in exploring what Schoenbrun calls the “gender deviance” of trans coded horror villains. Were films like Sleepaway Camp positive, negative, or neutral representation? Understanding that, as well as the tropes that Sleepaway Camp helped produce, will be vital to understanding the history of the Camp Miasma franchise and the connection that it instilled in the film’s leads.
Not only that, but there’s a lot of metatextual examination that Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will provide for how we as an audience experience problematic classics like Sleepaway Camp. Much like the in-universe Camp Miasma films, which have their own complicated and charged depictions of gender, do those depictions matter anymore? Both the Camp Miasma and Sleepaway Camp series have become dormant, only to be exhumed by small subsections of horror fans irregularly, and the film explores how people interact with older media and our relationship to it.
Do we criticize it and explain why it’s problematic, or do we turn our brains off and engage with it the way the filmmakers intended? These are the questions Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma approaches, and knowing the history of films like Sleepaway Camp will help newcomers gain a greater understanding of what Jane Schoenbrun is going for.
