Written and directed by John Logan
Starring Theo Germaine, Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Austin Crute, Quei Tann, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, Monique Kim, Darwin del Fabro, Hayley Griffith, Boone Platt, Mark Ashworth and Kevin Bacon
USA, 2022
Time for another teen slasher, this time in the familiar camp setting. But there’s a twist! It’s not just any old camp – it’s a gay conversion camp!
Kevin Bacon returns to his slasher roots as the lead counselor of the kind of camp upset parents send their kids to to get brainwashed and reprogrammed. It’s the stuff of nightmares even if there’s not a killer on the loose, so they really could have dropped the slasher angle.
As it is, there’s already both too much and not enough going on in this movie. You’ve got a wide ensemble of kids dealing with complex real-world issues, plus a killer, and it still moves at a glacial pace. This is all the more surprising when you realize accomplished screenwriter John Logan wrote and directed it.
It is nice, in passing, to have a protagonist (Theo Germaine) who is representational of a group that is not often seen in heroic horror roles. But I wish either more or less had been done with it. This kinda shoots for the middle, which is not where you want to be when it comes to trying to do something different.
Anna Chlumsky also shows up in a supporting role just long enough for me to wish she was in more stuff. Someone give her a star turn, again! It’s been long enough.
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