Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — Gillian Anderson plays reclusive Final Girl in queer slasher remake plot

Young indie filmmaker Kris is hired to direct an origin‑story reboot of the Camp Miasma slasher franchise and travels to find the original Final Girl from the first movie.

Gillian Anderson plays Billy Presley, the former star who quit acting and now inhabits the disused sleepaway camp used for the original shoot; she has built a mini screening room to watch a 35mm print of her film repeatedly.

Kris, obsessed with the series since watching the first film at age eight, tries to persuade Billy to return. During their meeting Billy reveals a traumatic or significant secret about shooting the virginity‑loss scene, and Kris becomes convinced they are not alone at the camp — with suggestions someone may be at the bottom of the lake.

Jane Schoenbrun continues a pattern from We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) and I Saw the TV Glow (2024) of inventing an imaginary media phenomenon and treating it with fan‑seriousness. Camp Miasma is presented within the film as a franchise with games, merchandise and academic debate about its treatment of gender.

The movie mixes transformation, eroticism and stylised violence, balancing eccentric pop‑cultural black mass with committed genre affection. The ending includes a visual callback in the form of a split diopter shot.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma screened at the Cannes Film Festival and opens in UK and Irish cinemas on 21 August.