Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

I loved I Saw the TV Glow so I was very eager to see Jane Schoenbrun's latest movie, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and I finally had the opportunity last night.  The Camp Miasma horror franchise has become stale after too many sub-par sequels so Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder), a well-regarded indie filmmaker, has been hired to reboot it.  She is a huge fan of the series and wants to involve Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson), the actress who played the "final girl" in the original movie, in the new production.  Billy lives at the remote camp where the first movie was filmed and has become a virtual recluse but Kris tracks her down and visits her.  She explains to Billy that she was hired to fix the problematic transphobic premise of the movies for a modern audience because she is a queer filmmaker so she wants to explore a different perspective on identity.  Billy believes that she is over-intellectualizing the horror genre and that she should simply let it be a visceral experience.  The two of them eventually watch the first movie together (insert the plots of Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp with a killer known as Little Death into the movie within a movie) and Kris tells her that she has always been fascinated by the look in Billy's eye during the sex scene.  She reveals that it was at that moment her character found sexual release because she was about to be killed.  Billy initiates sex but Kris rebuffs her and confesses that she has never enjoyed it because she has some kind of mental block.  Billy suggests that she is, once again, over-intellectualizing it and that they should reenact the pivotal sex scene so she can become the main character and feel the terror before Little Death kills her.  Mayhem ensues!  I really enjoyed this, especially the idea that the movies you love shape who you are, but I do think that it belabors the central metaphor (it is definitely not subtle) and I started to feel like everything is a metaphor for sex (the candy, the metal vent worn by the killer, the weapon used by the killer, the winter setting which changes to spring, etc.).  I loved that the movie within a movie is basically a parody of slasher film tropes (the use of "A Long December" by Counting Crows made me laugh out loud) with kills that are hilariously over the top and full of sexual imagery.  Finally, Anderson is so entertaining to watch because she fully commits to the role (I laughed at the suggestion that Billy is channeling Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard).  I had a lot of fun seeing this late at night with a big crowd and I think it might become a cult classic!