Sightlines · reception

How Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was received

2026 · Jane Schoenbrun · Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma on Sightlines

The arc

Premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2026, where it drew a six-minute ovation while, per Variety's own headline, 'confounding' the room; by its August MUBI release the consensus had hardened into 'Schoenbrun's best film yet,' with some calling it their first genuine masterpiece.

What’s debated

The fault line is the meta layer: is the dizzyingly ambitious satire of Hollywood, IP, and hacky horror the point, or does it occasionally trip over its own headiness — masterpiece or too-clever-by-half?

Its footprint

The gleefully trashy mouthful of a title is a talking point all by itself, and the images of a blood-soaked Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder at a lesbian slasher's Cannes premiere did their own rounds.

Where it stands

An instant canon-climber that completes a run — We're All Going to the World's Fair, I Saw the TV Glow, and now this — cementing Schoenbrun as must-watch queer horror auteur canon.

Did you know? MUBI financed the film and premiered it in Cannes' Un Certain Regard, where its mix of orgasms and outrageous murders earned a six-minute standing ovation from a reportedly baffled audience.

Named by the director

  • Psycho (1998) — Schoenbrun cited Gus Van Sant's much-maligned remake among the slashers that profoundly influenced the film.
  • Psycho II (1983) — Named by Schoenbrun as a key influence — a legacy-sequel forebear for a film about making one.
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) — One of the six slashers Schoenbrun cited as shaping the film.
  • Evil Dead II (1987) — Cited by Schoenbrun among the film's core slasher influences.
  • Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) — Schoenbrun named this camp-set sequel among the film's direct influences.
  • Peeping Tom (1960) — Michael Powell's proto-slasher about looking and killing rounds out Schoenbrun's cited influence list.
  • Sleepaway Camp (1983) — Schoenbrun has discussed it directly — acknowledging its problematic trans representation while admitting such films were 'catnip' to them since age 10 — and it's name-checked in the film itself.

A Deleuzian reading of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma →