They/Them Combines Killers and Conversion Therapy, Creating a New Kind of Horror

Blumhouse Productions has produced some truly horrifying films, Get Out, Insidious, Paranormal Activity, and The Purge. Now they can LGBTQ horror to the list with their latest film They/Them, pronounced “they-slash-them”. Yes, you read that right.

Premiering August 5 on Peacock, the film revolves around a group of queer and trans youth who attend a conversion therapy camp, which is already frightening. But things take a turn for the worse when the methods the camp counselors use become increasingly unsettling. Add an unknown killer who starts claiming victims at the camp and you have a recipe for something truly horrifying.

The film serves as the directorial debut of gay actor, screenwriter, and playwright John Logan, who also wrote the film. 

“They/Them has been germinating within me my whole life,” Logan released in a statement covered in Variety. “I’ve loved horror movies as long as I can remember, I think because monsters represent ‘the other’ and as gay kid I felt a powerful sense of kinship with those characters who were different, outlawed, or forbidden. I wanted to make a movie that celebrates queerness, with characters that I never saw when I was growing up. When people walk away from the movie, I hope they’re going to remember the incredible love that these kids have for each other and how that love needs to be protected and celebrated.”

The cast includes Kevin Bacon, who runs the camp as its director Owen Whistler, alongside Carrie Preston, who plays Cora Whistler, a licensed therapist and Owen’s wife, and Anna Chlumsky, who plays camp medic Molly. Whereas the camper cast is led by Theo Germaine, who plays trans and nonbinary teen Jordan, and is joined by Quie Tann, Austin Crute, Monique Kim, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, and Darwin del Fabro who round out the crew of queer and trans teens.

Already there seems to be quite the buzz about it on the Internet: 

THEY SLASH THEM THIS NAME IS THE BEST THING EVER LMAO

— nat’s wife ⧗▽ᗢ (@corpssebbride) May 12, 2022

I don’t know anything about this particular movie but I will say that I think that horror as a genre

could work extremely well to demonstrate what it FEELS LIKE to be a queer kid with queerphobic parents https://t.co/K9XwxRqNjr

— Mean Fat Girl- 🏳️‍🌈💄 (@Artists_Ali) May 13, 2022

…wait it’s pronounced “they slash them”. I’m losing my mind. https://t.co/O0gMkR1PC7

— Nikki ‘Gazelle’ Crenshaw 💙 (@Gaiazelle) May 13, 2022

They SLASH them oh my god. I fucking love this. Horror is THE genre to explore our trauma, and turning the traumatic hellscape of a conversion camp into a horror set for a slasher film is perfect. I’m watching it idgaf https://t.co/qDngLOczpG

— Mouse | ❄️👑•💚🧡💙💛•🐜🗑️👍 (@adybpt) May 12, 2022

ok regardless of how this film turns out, “they slash them” as a nonbinary slasher title is admittedly inspired https://t.co/FanQnTOHDg

— fruity rituals 🌿☕️ (@occultings) May 12, 2022

the writers when they came up with they slash them pic.twitter.com/pC0yylDfnr https://t.co/EFidWlKHde

— ? (@hot_sad_girl) May 12, 2022

The Pronoun Cinematic Universe https://t.co/FIWIyCmVqJ pic.twitter.com/6pAPKMzkVm

— Nicole The Editor 🏳️‍⚧️ (@WomanOfCringe) May 12, 2022

And although the reaction seems to be split, only time will tell how this movie pans out. Either way, consider us intrigued, terrified, and slightly triggered.