The title already gives half the game away: sex and death, together at last. But in this new film written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, the ending isn't really about who lives and who dies — it's about how two characters learn to sit with their fear.
Schoenbrun, who previously landed on NME's list of the best films of the year with 'I Saw The TV Glow', casts Hannah Einbinder as Kris, a director hired to reboot the fictional slasher franchise 'Camp Miasma'. Her research leads her to Billy, the "final girl" from the original film, played by Gillian Anderson. Their collaboration quickly slides into a relationship tangled up in desire and fear, with a supporting cast that includes Amanda Fix, Arthur Conti, Eva Victor, Zach Cherry, Sarah Sherman and Patrick Fischler.
At the film's climax, Kris admits she can only feel pleasure by imagining herself inside a 'Camp Miasma' movie. Billy reveals she felt something similar while filming the sex scene in the original film — she pictured herself being watched through the eyes of the killer, Little Death, whose name is itself a play on the French phrase "la petite mort" (orgasm). Billy describes the moment as "receiving a signal", one she believes came from the mysterious cave at the bottom of Miasma lake, where Little Death keeps the tapes of the films he's created.
From there, the two women seem to step directly into the movie itself. Little Death emerges from the lake and kills Kris's partner, her agent and a studio executive, thrusting Kris into the role of final girl. Billy has prepared a romantic room, and when Kris arrives, the pair have sex, with Billy urging her to experience it all through Little Death's eyes. As Little Death closes in and impales them both with his spear, Kris reaches climax, completing her sexual awakening and releasing years of shame in the process.
A new tape surfaces from the lake, stamped with Kris and Billy's faces, hinting that their story has become the next 'Camp Miasma' film. Even so, the pair wake up together the next morning and walk into a petrol station covered in blood, completely at ease with each other and with the new lives they've stepped into.
In the closing moments, Kris reminds Billy of the warning she once gave: Little Death is still down there in the lake, and he will come back. The two share a smile. They're no longer afraid of Little Death — instead, they've chosen to embrace the desire he represents.
'Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma' won the Queer Palm at Cannes Film Festival in May, and is now playing in UK and Irish cinemas from August 21.
