October Horror Challenge 2022 #108: "They/Them"

When this movie came out over the summer, I was intrigued because it features some teenagers at an LGBTQ conversion camp, and given my experience with conversion therapy, I was interested in seeing what would happen in the movie and how they would portray gay conversion therapy and how much they get right (or wrong) about the therapy. I can tell right from the beginning that this is a different kind of therapy from the one I attended. They're a lot nicer, for one thing, and they say it's a safe space, and the place I went to didn't care about being safe for anyone, but that was back in 1999, so I guess things have changed a lot since then. Let's see how much else is different about this movie. Here goes nothing.

So this movie is about a group of teens at an LGBTQ conversion therapy camp, as I've mentioned before. The teens come from different backgrounds and walks of life, but all of them are there because they're not happy, whether that be not happy with who they are or not happy with parents who want to change them, so all of them are searching for something, if only a way to survive for the next week so they can get home and emancipate themselves. In the midst of therapy, they endure some disturbing psychological tactics while also finding themselves stalked by a mysterious masked killer.

I feel bad for the kids right from the beginning having to put up with the psychological tactics they have to endure. Isolation is a big one. The camp says they don't believe in isolating people, but taking these kids out into the woods and removing them from their friends and family is isolating them, sorry to break it to you. Kevin Bacon is in this movie, and he plays the leader and the head of the camp. I have to say I'm impressed with the casting decision, because he's great as always, but I really hated him in this movie, which I guess means he's doing his job, it's just unsettling. I'm not used to hating him.

At first I thought this movie was going to say that conversion therapy works or is harmless as long as you do it right and create a safe space like this movie says in the beginning. I thought it was going to show a masked killer going after the hapless campers and staff and they were going to portray the staff of the camp as helpless against the killer, but the staff gets some time to show their true colors before the killer starts slicing and dicing everyone in sight. That's when this becomes primarily a slasher movie with some biting social commentary. I appreciated that because I like slashers, and this is a good one.