The horror spoof Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma has earned a five-star review as it arrives in cinemas today, leading a week of new releases that includes a drag queen disaster movie and a rescued Looney Tunes film.
The 112-minute film, rated 15, is the vision of cult trans director Jane Schoenbrun and stars Hannah Einbinder alongside Gillian Anderson, who is best known for her role as Dana Scully in the science fiction series The X-Files.
Described with the verdict "some like it hot", the film is called the most lip-smacking morsel yet in a juicy year for next-gen horror. It reboots a fictional 1980s slasher franchise named Camp Miasma, whose original films featured a killer named Little Death, the masked, spear-wielding vengeful spirit of a bullied teenager who was raised as both a boy and a girl before being drowned in a lake by other children at a summer camp.
Einbinder plays Kris, a filmmaker and horror nerd described as a "Sundance wunderkind" who is best known for "remaking Psycho from the shower curtain's perspective". Kris is hired to reboot the franchise to make its transphobic origins palatable to a younger generation.
Kris travels to the abandoned summer camp where the original film was shot, now buried under snow reminiscent of the Stephen King horror adaptation The Shining, to meet her lifelong obsession: the franchise's legendary heroine Billy Presley, played by Anderson.
"It's all just play," Billy tells Kris in the film.
Anderson is described as a slasher-movie Norma Desmond with an indelibly erotic way with KFC dipping sauce. Einbinder, playing a close cousin of her character in the television comedy Hacks, is described as fully believable as a Gen Z horror nerd who is so confused by sex that she intellectualises desire almost out of existence.
The film, which is said to not be to everyone's taste given its outrageous title, gets messy and pretentious. Reviewers noted that it veers between a spot-on slasher spoof, a psychosexual fever dream, surreal body horror and a gay romance. Its violence is described as almost cartoon-like and not especially scary, but it has been praised as funny and marvellously camp in both senses of the word.
It is expected to lure a young online fanbase out of their bedrooms and into cinemas, drawing comparisons to the box-office sensation Backrooms, which was created by a teenage YouTuber earlier this summer.
Disaster movie drag spoof
The action comedy Stop! That! Train! has been awarded four stars, with reviewers delivering a verdict of "Drag Race meets Airplane!" and praising it as a runaway mainstream hit.
Produced by and starring RuPaul, the 90-minute 15-rated film was initially seen as a vanity project with niche appeal. It follows best friends Tess and DeeDee, played by Drag Race finalists Ginger Minj and Jujubee, who have spent more than ten years working as trolley dollies on the no-frills Stank Rail.
When the pair secure jobs on the super-luxe Glamazonian Express, the train's brakes fail, hurtling it into the path of a life-threatening "stormaganza". RuPaul plays the stupendously glam United States Commander in Chief, President Gagwell, in an ensemble cast that includes Chris Parnell as the Captain, the reality star Nicole Richie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The film is a disaster-movie spoof where the drag queens play it straight. While not every joke hits and UK viewers may not recognise most of the celebrity ensemble, reviewers said it works in a way that the parody franchise Scary Movie does not, delivering daft laughs faster than the Southeastern highspeed train.
Rescued Looney Tunes hybrid
Coyote VS. ACME has also earned four stars following a public outcry that saved the film from being binned by Warner Bros as a $30 million tax write-off.
The 103-minute PG-rated live-action and animated hybrid follows the Looney Tunes character Wile E Coyote, who is fed up with the endless injuries he has incurred in his obsessive pursuit of the Road Runner. He hires a lazy human lawyer, played by Will Forte, to sue the Acme Corporation over its chronically malfunctioning products.
John Cena and Lana Condor also star in the film, which bottles the lunatic fizz of classic cartoons and has been likened to an inspired 21st-century Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Reaching the big screen in a manner said to be in the spirit of the Coyote himself, reviewers called it a madcap, whip-smart production and a heartfelt paean to resilience and the unquenchable pursuit of the impossible. Beep! Beep!
Spa comedy and Statham action
A raucous comedy about stressed-out working mothers has received a one-star review, branded excruciatingly bad despite a cast of seasoned comedy professionals.
Spa Weekend, a 97-minute 15-rated film, stars Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Anna Faris and Michelle Buteau behaving badly on a luxury spa break. Described as being in the style of the 2011 comedy Bridesmaids, it includes a scene involving goat yoga but failed to raise a single smile from reviewers.
The drama & Sons received two stars. The 120-minute 15-rated film stars Bill Nighy as a tortured, alcoholic literary genius who has not written anything or left his house for nearly 20 years. Facing death, he summons his estranged sons, played by Johnny Flynn and George MacKay, to reconcile with their much younger brother (Noah Jupe), dropping a bombshell on them and his long-suffering ex-wife, played by Imelda Staunton.
Nighy and Staunton are described as skin-prickingly good, while Dominic West plays a brash Hollywood executive dialling his performance up to 11 to ensure audiences do not nod off during the odd, uncompelling story.
Also taking two stars is the 95-minute 15-rated Mutiny, an action thriller set on a cargo ship. Jason Statham stars as a hard-bitten, soft-centred loner traumatised by personal tragedy who is capable of killing a man with one hand.
He shoots, punches, stabs and harpoons his way through container loads of people-trafficking baddies in a film that features tough-guy dialogue, a token hot blonde, and a surprise appearance by the actor Adrian Lester. Reviewers noted it is more likely to get pulses resting than racing, but expected Statham to crank out another film soon.
