They/Them: Too Bland To Be Bad
On non-violence and the need for queers to be offensive.
This review includes spoilers for They/Them, which is currently streaming on Peacock. Read on at your own discretion!
Previously known as Whistler Camp, the re-titling of John Logan’s They/Them made one hell of a splash online. Upon announcement, people on Twitter went nuts: some reactions were humorous (‘they’ve completed the pronouns trilogy’), some reactions were right-wring hand-wringing about the LGBTQ agenda, and some were genuinely concerned about the subject matter being tackled.
They/Them follows Jordan (Theo Germaine), a non binary teenager who is sent to a week-long conversion therapy camp alongside a larger group of gay and trans teens. As the group undergoes the usual psychological torture that might be expected from conversion therapy, a masked killer also emerges as a greater threat to the campsite.
As someone who’s spent the last two years doing extensive research and analysis regarding the transsexual figure in horror films, I’ve been following They/Them since its initial announcement. And, naturally, I had some preemptive concerns. Not concerns that anybody else seemed to share, of course. I didn’t feel offended that the film would be tackling the subject of conversion therapy. I also wasn’t worried that…
