• About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Friday, August 19, 2022
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
No Result
View All Result

‘They/Them’ Will Give You Sweaty Cabin Fever

by Joey Moser
August 4, 2022
in ADTV, ADTV Feature, ADTV Main
0
‘They/Them’ Will Give You Sweaty Cabin Fever

(Photo: Josh Stringer: Blumhouse)

Download: ‘They/Them’ Will Give You Sweaty Cabin Fever

Summer camps are fueled by hormone potential in horror movies, and being slaughtered by a masked maniac is a staple of American slasher flicks. With the comfort of parents and home at a far distance, a sweaty summer camp is the perfect place for young people to come into their own and fight for their lives. With Peacock’s They/Them (pronounced they-slash-them), a batch of queer characters face horrors both in the form of a serial killer and the world at large.

A lot of They/Them, written and directed by John Logan, reminded me of the 1999 Jamie Babbit satire, But I’m a Cheerleader. In that film, Natasha Lyonne’s parents send her to a gay conversion camp in hopes that she learns about traditional gender roles and how a woman needs to satisfy and be subordinate to her husband. Logan’s film shows how conservative people have always had the erasure of queer identity on their minds.

A group of queer, transgender, and nonbinary young people arrive at Whistler Camp, and they are greeted by Kevin Bacon’s easygoing and disarming camp leader, Owen. “I can’t make you straight,” he tells everyone, surprising the campers and us, the audience. When he assigns everyone to gender specific bunks, Jordan (Theo Germaine) informs Owen that they use they/them pronouns. Even though the campers have to hand over their cell phones and computers, a general affable atmosphere is introduced.

That affability doesn’t last long for several reasons. The campers are forced to participate in activities designed to “enlighten” them about roles they are meant to take on. Owen wants all the guys to shoot animals while another counselor, Sarah (Hayley Griffith), takes all the girls into the kitchen to instruct them on successful piemaking. Logan wisely mixes up the feelings of those sent to Camp Whistler. Monica Kim’s Veronica thinks the camp is bullshit while Anna Lore’s Kim admits to wanting a different life. Cooper Koch’s Stu is the self-hating, masc-presenting bro that you hate yourself for hitting up on Grindr.

Bacon is an unsettling villain. Not only does he call back to his Friday the 13th roots, but he relies on his charm in a cutting but not obvious way. Carrie Preston, as Camp Whistler’s therapist, has a disturbing scene where she grills Jordan into revealing things about their home life. It’s a key representation of how antiqueer individuals mask their contempt of queer people by presenting a façade of “doing the right thing.” If we had an entire series with Germaine in the lead, sign me up–they are charismatic presence. Queer people are some of horror’s most devout and vocal supporters, so these young actors take the horror genre by the throat.

I originally thought that They/Them didn’t need the physical embodiment of horror with the ax-wielding killer. The horrors of a camp like this–with conversion therapy and threats of violence–is scary enough. Why add a slasher element? I appreciate that Logan uses both, because queer people are not faced with one type of hatred, homophobia, or threat. Queer people must always be on high-alert, because we don’t exactly know if some people, be it counselor, parent, or alleged friend, truly has hate intentions.

They/Them debuts on Peacock on August 5.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
Tags: horrorPeacockQueerThey/Them
Joey Moser

Joey Moser

Joey is a writer currently living in Columbus, OH. He is a proud member of GALECA, and he is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic. If you would like to talk to Joey about cheese or Julianne Moore, follow him on Twitter or Instagram.

Next Post
Favorite Oscar Year, Favorite Oscar Winner

Favorite Oscar Year, Favorite Oscar Winner

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required
  1. Renard N. Bansale on Predictions Friday: Never Fear, Festival Season Is HereAugust 19, 2022

    SAG has leaned populist as of late, and it certainly helped that two Moonlight actors were in the Hidden Figures…

  2. Joe Chip on Predictions Friday: Never Fear, Festival Season Is HereAugust 19, 2022

    By the by, I always thought that the thing that could have done in La La Land was the absurdly…

  3. Tom85 on Predictions Friday: Never Fear, Festival Season Is HereAugust 19, 2022

    No white male director has won since Damien Chazelle did it in 2016 for La La Land. That year the…

  4. JP on Predictions Friday: Never Fear, Festival Season Is HereAugust 19, 2022

    I don't know how anyone can leave off Amsterdam at this point. Whether you like him or not, if you're…

  5. Ferdinand on The State of the Race: Hollywood, the Oscars and America at a CrossroadsAugust 19, 2022

    Perhaps then my information is outdated. However, at least a few years ago I still remember actors talking about coming…

  • Predictions Friday – Best Actress and the Oscar Story

    Predictions Friday – Best Actress and the Oscar Story

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Casting Director Carmen Cuba on the Casting Challenges, New Faces for ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Anne Heche and What Should Have Been

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The State of the Race: Hollywood, the Oscars and America at a Crossroads

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Her Treatment at 1973 Oscars

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Editor Clarence Moye
  • Editor Mark Johnson
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Editor
  • Joey Moser, Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Oscar Podcast
  • AwardsDailyTV

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In