"They/Them" Is An LGBTQ+ Horror Masterpiece

Subtext no more. They/Them takes queer horror front and center

*This review contains minor spoilers*

Horror has a long history of being queer-coded. From transgender serial killer tropes to the effeminate villains, the coding hasn't usually been kind; however, that hasn't stopped LGBTQ+ people from finding a deep connection to the genre, even if the genre has historically left queer people on the side of the road.

They/Them (pronounced "They-Slash-Them") is veteran screenwriter John Logan's debut directorial film, that sees a group of queer young adults setting out to survive a week at a conversion camp.

The film initially seems to be a queer homage to the slasher films of the '80s, but twists into a deeply layered psychological thriller that shows the real life LGBTQ+ experience is often scarier than any horror movie.

A cast of standouts guide you into the darkness

Every good horror film needs an even better cast, which They/Them delivers on in spades. Jordan (Theo Germaine) quickly becomes the focal point of the main group, clarifying that they will not happily be partaking in any "conversion" along with Toby (Austin Crute), Alexandra (Quei Tann), and Veronica (Monique Kim), while others like Stu (Cooper Kock) and Kim (Anna Lore) are at the camp to change their queerness.

The film initially appears as a queer Friday The 13th with the slasher film vibes in full effect as the archetypes and crucial roles become set. However, as camp owner Owen Whistler (the scary good Kevin Bacon), introduces himself to the campers with a chilling welcome speech, you realize this horror will not be like anything you've seen before.

Bacon's Owen Whistler along with his wife Dr. Cora Whistler (Carrie Preston), newly appointed camp nurse Molly (Anna Chlumsky), “reformed gay” athletics director Zane (Boone Platt), and his fiancée, Sarah (Hayley Griffith) are fantastically scary as the counselors, who use their homophobic undertones to allude of the evil horrors to come.

Not a typical horror plot

As the "camp activities" flesh out our cast of campers, the genuine horrors of the conversion therapy surface. From the "gender-normative" activities meant to make the women talented cooks and shooting to make the boys "real men," the "we don't want to change you" attitude soon erodes to true horror.

The horrors on display are surprising though, as jump scares and gore aren't what end up scaring you the most. While there is clearly a murderer on the loose, the fear of what will happen to these lovable queer kids is very clear, and the horrors of what can happen to them soon become more terrifying than any murderer in the woods.

One of the more disturbing scenes involves a trans woman (Alexandra) caught showering and moved to the boys' cabin for "not being truthful about their gender identity." Another similarly awful scene occurs later, when the boys are shooting targets and Bacon's evil Owen forces the effeminate Toby to shoot his dog with cancer "to be a real man."

While those descriptions may make it seem like queer torture porn, the film uses those terrifying scenarios to reenforce the horror and give the camp's queer teens drive to rebel and accept their queerness. Don't worry if you are afraid of watching a bunch of queer kids get tortured or murdered, because this film isn't that.

Queer love triumphs against horror

When most people heard this was a horror film set at a queer conversion camp, a setting attached with its own real-life horrors, a moment of hesitation set in. While films like But I'm a Cheerleader have shown that beauty can be found in the horror, They/Them had an uphill battle to justify using the setting and it becoming nothing but queer people suffering.

While some campers wish they were straight, the film attempts to show that the LGBTQ+ campers deserve so much better and find so much love in themselves and their queerness by the film's end. For every spooky ominous scene, there are at least two more between the LGBTQ+ campers about them finding strength in themselves and their shitty situation.

This movie is a horror film, but it's through the horror that the surprising ways in which queer people will find love, beauty, and strength exist, and that will stick with me. I was terrified They/Them would be nothing but queer torture porn, making fun of pronouns and killing off LGBTQ+ people, but it's not that.

With every chance to cast aside any care for its LGBTQ+ themes or characters, the film did better, fleshing out the real-life horrors queer people face and showing that queer people can overcome them.

Rising above stereotypes, archetypes, and everything in-between

Camp is a setting rich with horror potential and scary vibes, but conversion camp is a whole other monster. They/Them is a film that thrives in the duality of its setting and tropes.

Horror is seeped in tropes and archetypes, which made the first act of the film a guessing game of "who will die first," "who is the killer," and "who will make it out alive." These are typical horror questions, but this isn't a typical horror film.

The film tackles queerphobic attitudes head-on and doesn't hold out on any of the true terror. The villains are not queer and perfectly display the quiet hatred and micro-aggressions that many homophobes use in real life every day.

Even when the villains have complicated queer backstories, they try to reckon with our queer rage and the real-life horrors that LGBTQ+ people suffer through every day.

An all-time great horror film

They/Them is the rare horror film that uses real-life queer anxieties to inspire a frighteningly good survival story. While so many films have LGBTQ+ influences or are queer-coded, few horror films truly ever give credit to those people.

Despite the initial cheesy slasher vibe, the film ends up displaying some truly terrifying situations for its LGBTQ+ teens to survive, but also some of the most hopeful.

As far as LGBTQ+ horror films go, They/Them is undoubtedly one of the best there is.

Few other films have ever used queer themes to talk about the horrors of the LGBTQ+ without it just becoming anything other than queer suffering. This film genuinely surprised me, not for its horror, but for its queer love.

They/Them premieres on Peacock on August 5.

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