A Reviewer’s Checklist Before Watching ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’

Strictly speaking, you do not need any prior knowledge to enjoy Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. This is in fact a standalone movie that exists as an individual entity of a cinematic experience. There is no prequel, no original, no franchise. However, I feel like that is somewhat of a facetious thing to actually claim because while Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma has no formal predecessors, your enjoyment of this movie is going to be predicated on several things.

The latest film from Jane Schoenbrun is a movie built on reference. At its core, it is a movie about a slasher movie. As such, a fair amount of the visual language and storytelling tropes are situated in the horror genre. Even if you are only passingly familiar with the mainstays, you will recognize the constant callbacks and allusions to things like Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Nightmare on Elm Street (and if you’re versed in the genre, you may pick up things like Leprechaun). The more you understand horror, and specifically the slasher, the more you innately understand the story. I am not as versed in horror. I have been attempting to incorporate my horror into my media consumption diet, but it is a slow process. I have probably a slightly better than the average knowledge level of the genre such that I can appreciate it even if I don’t fully adore it. That said, this is a movie about a slasher movie and specifically this is a movie about making a slasher movie. And in that respect, this metafictional…