Cannes 2026 - Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun

In Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, an infamous horror franchise, Camp Miasma, is being revived and Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is the queer filmmaker tasked with bringing it back to life. Her journey leads her to seek out Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the mysterious, reclusive actress who played the original final girl.

Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is the ultimate love letter to ’80s slashers, but also something stranger, sadder and more personal: a gorgeous, melancholic queer UFO about the intense, intimate relationship horror fans can have with the genre.  What makes the film so affecting is that its genre commentary never feels merely clever. The director takes aim at the current state of horror: originality flattened by committees and focus groups, classics endlessly recycled as intellectual property, and overtly complicated “elevated horror”. There is a wonderful moment when Billy gently chides Kris’s more academic reading of her project, and it works because the film itself understands that horror does not always need to be justified: sometimes it is flesh, fluids and fear. And yet Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is far from anti-intellectual. It is in constant conversation with the past, not just the canonised "masterpieces" but also the lesser-known, possibly terrible yet beloved slashers.

Yes, there are plenty of nods, including one to Friday the 13th Part VII that should put a huge smile on horror audiences’ faces, but the affection here goes deeper than references. Jane Schoenbrun captures the way fans love these films while being perfectly aware of how terrible they can be. The film also offers a welcome dialogue between Kris and Billy.  It could easily have become another tired generational clash full of stereotypes and misunderstandings but instead it feels curious and tender. 

Gillian Anderson is sensational as Billy. She is not presented as a faded star returning to a franchise that made her famous, but as an actress who actually never quite made it and withdrew from the industry rather than staying on for endless sequels. She is glamorous, eccentric, vulnerable and elusive, yet Anderson never overplays her and conveys so much with so little. That idea also speaks beautifully to horror fandom itself. Fans like Kris obsess over Billy in the way many of us, when IMDb first appeared, searched for the actresses from beloved horror franchises and discovered how brief or unremarkable their careers had been. Hannah Einbinder is excellent too: at first there are echoes of Ava from Hacks but her character takes on more depth, becoming more exposed as the film goes along.

With its fantastic art direction, captivating visuals, sincerity and unexpected emotional charge, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ultimately becomes something more singular than either satire or mere fan-service, its visuals, both grubby and beautiful, like a fever dream of half-remembered memories from late-night VHS viewings. It also echoes the horny queer awakening these films represented for some of us discovering them on VHS or DVD in our teenage years. 

Review by Laurent de Alberti.

Star rating: ★★★★★

Official Selection, Un Certain Regard.

Directed by Jane Schoenbrun. Starring Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson...