Is Uber-Woke ‘Camp Miasma’ Exception to Culture War Rule?
Queer slasher film scores big in limited release ... will it play in Peoria?
Get woke, go broke.
Hollywood has learned that lesson the brutal way. Consider how trusted franchises like “Doctor Who,” “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” cratered after embracing the “woke mind virus.”
Disney dropped its “not-so-secret gay agenda” after several woke projects bombed with audiences.
Think “Lightyear” and “Snow White” as two stark, startling examples.
Yet a few woke projects actually thrive. One, in particular, became a blockbuster.
The 2023 comedy “Barbie” delivered a candy-colored blast of wokeness, and the box office exploded all the same – $1.4 billion worldwide. The film neutered the men in the story, particularly Ken, delivered woke lectures and pushed diverse casting to the limit.
Audiences ate it up.
Credit star Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling’s comic chops or a toy with endless nostalgia connections. You can’t deny its success.
Will a new, woke horror movie tread a similar, albeit more modest path?
“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” boasts an awkward title and indie sensibilities. Trans director Jane Schoenbrun’s film offers an unabashedly progressive crush of subjects and angles that all but scream woke.
This critic hasn’t screened the film, but consider this description:
After [young queer filmmaker] Kris’s first indie film, an overly intellectual slasher … she is hired to reboot the fictional 1980s slasher series Camp Miasma. Kris’ tracks down the original film’s star Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson) … Kris hopes to convince Billy to return (à la Jamie Lee Curtis in 2018’s Halloween) to the franchise for her own queer-infused reboot.
It is what it is. And, so far, it’s drawn a crowd.
Jane Schoenbrun’s “Camp Miasma” edged “Tony” this past weekend, earning $890K from 54 locations for a per-screen-average of $16,495.
That’s impressive. It also boasts a 96 perfect “fresh” rating at RottenTomatoes.com
Will that carry over to a wider audience? The far-Left Deadline.com says it’s expected to total 500 screens this weekend. That will be a better test of its drawing power.
Schoenbrun previously delivered “I Saw the TV Glow,” another queer-themed horror film that earned a modest $5 million stateside. Has that film’s word-of-mouth brand been part of “Camp Miasma’s” success?
There’s an audience for woke, just like there’s an audience for almost any film genre. Said audience is traditionally small, though, and the mainstream successes can be counted on one hand.
Will “Camp Miasma” added a finger via this week’s box office chart?
The percentage of the population still clinging to “woke” is probably relatively small – say 20 to 30 percent. But if you could mobilize most of them to go see a movie, you’re still talking about tens of millions of people. Each one drops 15 bucks on a movie ticket, you have a box office haul of hundreds of millions of dollars.
I don’t really care if they make woke movies. As John Nolte says, movies should be for everyone. The only thing I object to is when they keep the agendas hidden and I get blindsided by wokeness when I’m simply trying to be entertained.
Just be up-front about what you’re selling. Which is why sites like this one are so helpful. HIT has saved me a lot of money and aggravation,
“That’s impressive. It also boasts a 96 perfect “fresh” rating at RottenTomatoes.com”
Look guy, I know you’re a film critic, and it’s true that not all film critics are useless liberal naval gazers whose livelihood and happiness depend on supporting The Agenda. But most of them are, to one degree or another. An RT critic rating means almost nothing.