First of all: I'm gay myself and I'm a horror and slasher fan.
The first minutes of the movie were pretty good and gave me big hopes that the rest of the movie was going to be the same.
Well, it wasn't.
The movie wasn't even horror or a slasher, because there was absolutely no tension, and the murderer was after nobody I would really care for. The whole movie just felt like a personal revenge killing spree that was only made to attract and feed a Gen Z they/them audience. I just kept guessing who the murderer was, but even that wasn't really hard if you could count to 3.
On top of the boring story, almost nobody of the main characters was likeable and the main protagonist Theo Germaine had the expressional acting bandwidth of a rock. The character development and their background stories were so shallow that it rather felt like a camp of deaf-mutes. There was almost zero dialogue that would reveal anything meaningful about the characters.
Sadly, neither Kevin Bacon nor Carrie Preston (known from True Blood) were able to save the movie from the poor script. Please try again and get better writers because this was thumbs down deluxe.
They/Them
2022
Action / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
They/Them
2022
Action / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
Plot summary
Whistler, a gay conversion camp, has been in operation by the same family going back generations. Currently the camp is operated by Owen Whistler (Kevin Bacon) and his wife, Dr. Cora Whistler (Carrie Preston). The Whistlers have a small staff of four: activities director Amy, her gay-conversion-camp-alumni-turned-athletics-director boyfriend Zane, groundskeeper Balthazar, and Molly--the camp counselor who uncovers the horrors of Whistler Camp at the bequest of camper Jordan. A fifth employee emerges as a decoy within the campers. Suddenly, employees are picked off in a murder streak by an unknown assailant.
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Probably the worst slasher film of the decade
They/Them fails to deliver the slashing
They/Them is a dissatisfying slasher that has interesting ideas, and a decent first half. But quickly divulges into a dull and uninspired slasher.
Starting off with the good, Kevin Bacon and Theo Germaine are very good with the material their given. Theo Germaine especially is a standout as this actor gives some surprising depth to his character. Speaking of depth all of these young kids actually have some character scenes that feel real. There's quite a bit of great emotional scenes between these characters which really made the film more grounded. And the first half of this film was actually somewhat decent. The physiological horror is actually done pretty well.
However despite some good ideas and good character moments, this film is a tonal mess from the last 30 minutes. The pacing is way too slow, in fact it's not really even a slasher for about 75 minutes. The movie builds to really nothing. It almost makes the slasher part of the film feel unnecessary, and almost a completely different film than the first half. The kills are very dull and uninventive, there's no creativity here. There's no tension or even any chase scenes. The movie falls back on a lot of horror clichés, and it made the final act very boring and disappointing. There's also some really bad editing in the final 20 minutes that make some scenes involving a certain character and the killer make no sense. And finally the killer was blatantly obvious. It's a terrible twist that you can see coming a mile away and really it makes you look back and see that none of our protagonist were in actual danger with the killer
Overall They/Them has an interesting premise, but doesn't do anything with that premise and offers no thrills, no blood, awful motivation, and a lack of scares.
Insulting to the entire horror genre
This is not a horror movie. The pacing and plot elements and cinematography would lead one to think so, but it is not. Interesting premise that is totally wasted with a terrible script and bizarre acting. The *very* few scenes involving violence are predictable and WHAT ON EARTH is Kevin Bacon doing in this movie?
The "twist" at the end is a mediocre excuse to try and make a social statement. I have no idea what that statement is, but I do know that this movie was a waste of my time.