They/Them Review

PLOT: A group of LGBTQ youths spending a week at a conversion camp come to discover that a masked slasher is stalking the camp, picking people off one-by-one.

REVIEW: After spending more than thirty years building up his screenwriting career and earning three Oscar nominations along the way (for Gladiator, The Aviator, and Hugo), John Logan has teamed up with Blumhouse Productions to make his directorial debut with the horror movie They/Them (we’re meant to pronounce the title They-slash-Them). Logan’s choice to direct a horror movie isn’t that surprising, given that he has worked on projects like Alien: Covenant and Sweeney Todd before, and created the television series Penny Dreadful, but it is somewhat surprising that he decided to make a slasher. A very pleasant surprise.

They/Them is set at a gay conversion camp called Camp Whistler, where a group of LGBTQ youths arrive to spend a week under the guidance of owner Owen Whistler (Kevin Bacon) and his counselors, who are played by the likes of Boone Platt, Carrie Preston, Hayley Griffith, and Anna Chlumsky. The fact that Logan decided to give the conversion camp in his story the name Camp Whistler makes me wonder if it’s meant to be a nod to the old belief that a person’s sexuality can be determined by seeing if they can whistle or not. Conversion camps have awful reputations, but something seems off about this one right from the start because Owen seems way too nice. Too tolerant, too progressive. And sure enough, there are some very dark secrets hidden just beneath the surface at Camp Whistler. This would be a terrible place to spend time at even if there wasn’t a masked slasher lurking around, picking people off when the opportunity arises.

As you would expect from Logan, there is a very strong focus on character in this movie, and he spends time letting us get to know several of the kids who have come to this camp. There are gay males, lesbian females, trans characters, and one non-binary character who prefers the pronouns they/them. They each have their own reasons for being at Camp Whistler in the first place. Some were forced to go to the camp by their parents, while others have shown up with the hope that Whistler and his counselors will somehow be able to make them straight. And some of them do find their path in life while at this camp – but the help comes from being able to interact with peers who are dealing with similar issues. There are heartwarming, uplifting moments in They/Them as we see these youths discovering who they truly are and learning to accept themselves. Things get so uplifting, the youths even break out into a musical number at one point.

Theo Germaine, Quei Tann, Austin Crute, Monique Kim, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, and Darwin del Fabro play the campers we get to know best during their time at Camp Whistler, and each one of them delivered a terrific performance, perfectly handling the material they were given. Germaine is our lead, the non-binary character Jordan, a strong and capable person who tries to help others out of this awful situation they’ve found themselves in. We spend more time with the campers than with the counselors, but Logan makes sure we know what’s going on with the people running this camp as well. We find out how each of them works and whether or not they really want to help these kids.

In addition to the great character work, Logan also digs into the elements you expect to find in a slasher. Sex, violence, and bloodshed. It’s great to see Kevin Bacon in a camp slasher more than forty years after he met a bloody demise in the original Friday the 13th – and this really proves that Bacon should stay far away from camps, because nothing good ever comes out of it for him or the people around him. And there’s another treat for Friday the 13th fans in this movie. They/Them was filmed at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, Georgia, at the camp right across the lake from the camp that served as Camp Forest Green (formerly Camp Crystal Lake) in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI. So we’re seeing Kevin Bacon in a slasher movie, at the same lake Jason Voorhees stalked in Jason Lives. And “Jason Voorhees” is directly referenced in the dialogue. It’s also worth noting that this same camp served as the primary location in last year’s Fear Street Part Two: 1978. It’s always fun to see slashers overlapping and using the same locations.

Logan has gotten his directing career off to a great start with They/Them, which is a satisfying slasher movie with some impressive writing and acting. Kevin Bacon, bloodshed, a musical number, what more could you want from a movie? I will definitely be having more viewings of this one in the future, because They/Them is (almost) perfect to me.

They/Them is now available to watch on the Peacock streaming service.

They/Them

AMAZING

9