Director: Jane Schoenbrun

Stars: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson

The third part of writer-director Schoenbrun’s ‘Screen Trilogy’, following cult hit ‘I Saw the TV Glow’, is another reality-twisting study of cultural obsession and identity. Einbinder is Kris, a young filmmaker tasked with rebooting the ‘Camp Miasma’ slasher franchise. An elegant and witty title sequence shows how, via tie-ins, merchandise and media, the Miasma series became a pop cultural phenomenon before falling out of favour due to its problematic themes. Kris, it is explained, has been called in to give it a ‘woke’ whitewash. A big fan of the franchise’s Final Girl, who was played by actor Billy Presley, Kris is determined to cast her in this new addition to the series. Returning to the location of the first film in Washington State, Kris discover that Billy (Anderson) is now a recluse who has bought and now lives in the Camp Miasma site. Cue some amusing and wilfully on-the-nose dialogue about Billy being a Norma Desmond from ‘Sunset Boulevard’ figure. At Billy’s invitation, Kris stays at the star’s house as they prepare for the project. The camp-turned-house works as a kind of liminal space where Kris questions her own identity and sexual hang-ups. Initially the dynamic is similar to the Einbinder-featuring series ‘Hacks’, which also explores a relationship between a young idealistic creative and an older, more cynical actress with unreconstructed attitudes. The film shifts to something more akin to ‘Performance’ midway as the barrier between reality and fantasy begins to break down and Kris falls under Billy’s influence. This is a dense picture which nods cleverly to 80s horror while satirising the trend for rebooting existing IPs, while also exploring how desire can be ignited by cultural obsessions. The knowingness means it can be hard to engage with emotionally, but the well-matched stars are great with Anderson in particular having a ball playing the camply eccentric southern belle scream queen.

David Willoughby

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