They/Them

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The film does a lot of things well. The villains and the camp stuff was great and Kevin Bacon and Theo Germaine both did great in it, with Kevin easily being the best part. However, the actual slasher stuff was easily the weakest part and brought the score down a bit. Overall, the movie was good though.

Watched it because of Kevin Bacon but the acting and plot was awful. Wow, the worst horror (not a horror movie) I have ever seen. When they were shooting targets a lot of the characters were moving their weapons around flippantly. The councilor, told camp members to go down range to move targets further while the students still had their rifles pointed down range. Beyond that this isn't a horror film, maybe suspense, a super dumb suspense film.

source: They/Them

This may be a slasher film, but the real horror here is the camp. A group of kids arrive at a gay conversion camp and suffer at the hands of the camp attendants whilst another possible horror awaits in the forest. The slasher element of this movie is a troupe that has appeared in film for many decades but here the bigger horror is what is happening to the kids and the slasher element feels like it was tagged onto the end rather than being the driving force. The dynamics between the kids are well developed with the pacing of the movie giving us time to explore and get to know the characters, the camp attendants led by Kevin Bacon gradually develop into a sinister and frightening crew. Overall this is a good film, it could have been great if the team making it had realised that the added slasher element was not necessary.

So, this isn't a great movie, but it's solid. I give it a 7.5 (rounded up to 8) for a few reasons ("soft" spoilers): It's got heart. Lots of good, affirming messages and you really care for some of the characters. Solid performances. Bacon is good as always, but so are all the main actors/actresses; I hope we see more from some of these young talents. (Chlumsky has some good moments too). Originality. As far as I know, this is the 1st summer camp horror/suspense/slasher movie done in this particular way with these particular characters. It's very timely and relevant. This is more of a suspense/thriller than slasher or horror movie. In that sense, the main tension in the plot derives from a "what's going on? When will all be fully revealed?" type of narrative. And there are some good twists, though I did see the major one coming about 3/4 of the way through (though I wasn't totally sure until it did manifest). My only real major criticism isn't really even a fair one as it has to do with the budget/production which is just adequate. But that's to be expected for the type of movie this is. A more minor criticism is that this lacks some "action"; but it's far from boring or a drama. It just relies more on character driven tension than bodies being piled up (which frankly I find boring: "oh here we go again; another teen alone outside at summer camp, gee I wonder what will happen...yep, now we're seeing him/her through the eyes of the murderer through the branches...gee wonder what will happen...is this murder 8 or 9?). In the end, give it a try if you're looking for something different (or at least a different twist on an old theme), some emotive performances, some interesting characters you actually care for, and an overall plot that you can invest in and care about what happens.

They/Them is a dissatisfying slasher that has interesting ideas, and a decent first half. But quickly divulges into a dull and uninspired slasher. Starting off with the good, Kevin Bacon and Theo Germaine are very good with the material their given. Theo Germaine especially is a standout as this actor gives some surprising depth to his character. Speaking of depth all of these young kids actually have some character scenes that feel real. There's quite a bit of great emotional scenes between these characters which really made the film more grounded. And the first half of this film was actually somewhat decent. The physiological horror is actually done pretty well. However despite some good ideas and good character moments, this film is a tonal mess from the last 30 minutes. The pacing is way too slow, in fact it's not really even a slasher for about 75 minutes. The movie builds to really nothing. It almost makes the slasher part of the film feel unnecessary, and almost a completely different film than the first half. The kills are very dull and uninventive, there's no creativity here. There's no tension or even any chase scenes. The movie falls back on a lot of horror clichés, and it made the final act very boring and disappointing. There's also some really bad editing in the final 20 minutes that make some scenes involving a certain character and the killer make no sense. And finally the killer was blatantly obvious. It's a terrible twist that you can see coming a mile away and really it makes you look back and see that none of our protagonist were in actual danger with the killer Overall They/Them has an interesting premise, but doesn't do anything with that premise and offers no thrills, no blood, awful motivation, and a lack of scares.