After years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom, the Camp Miasma slasher franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director (Hannah Einbinder, Hacks) for resurrection. But when she visits the original movie’s star (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files), a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium.

This is another one of those “I’m not entirely sure what I just watched, but I know I loved it” films. All at once a loving pastiche and critique of the slashers of yesteryear and an exploration of truly giving yourself over to desire, it’s a wild, trippy thrill ride. While cut from the same cloth as Schoenbrun’s previous films, there’s a sense of hopefulness here that’s entirely absent from I Saw the TV Glow, even as the films explore similar ideas. If I Saw the TV Glow explored the danger of losing yourself in fiction and, ultimately, never find a way of being your truest self, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma simultaneously explores the way fiction can help you find yourself and the need to eventually free yourself from the grips of fiction and embrace the messy joys of real connection.

As a film, it’s an immensely enjoyable mishmash of tones—campy, bloody fun; soul-moving self-exploration; and even a small dose of genuine terror. It’s a slasher movie and something altogether more all at the same time. If you’ve ever struggled with ways of expressing yourself and used media as an arrow toward your identity, you’ll walk away from Camp Miasma feeling seen in a manner both joyous and startling. And what more can you ask for?

4 out of 5 wands.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in theaters nationwide.