When Kevin Bacon first appears in John Logan’s “They/Them” as Owen Whistler, a counselor at a summer gay conversion camp, he exudes an affable, insinuating charisma that puts worried campers at risk. ‘easy. Rather than portraying himself as a bigoted bully, Owen comes across as kind and open-minded, employing social justice terminology to promise that he has no intention of forcing anyone to be straight, but simply wants to help them “finding their truth” – a considerate attitude that even partially soothes Jordan (Theo Germaine), a non-binary teenager who is immediately suspicious of Whistler’s approach. Because this is a slasher film, Whistler’s overly polite demeanor carries a latent threat to the audience. It’s a horror movie about LGBTQ teenagers in a conversion camp, after all. There’s no way it can be that easy.
Whistler’s funky facade eventually slips, and “They/Them” escalates the familiar slasher violence, as a masked, axe-wielding maniac begins slaughtering various people around camp. But Logan, who also wrote the screenplay, feels so reluctant to engage in the thorny political implications inherent in this material – of having to negotiate a cast of gay, transgender and non-binary characters in a horror setting – that the whole thing ends up seeming rather tame. Slasher films require a certain provocation, even bad taste: a little incendiary zeal is essential for the effect. “They/they” absolutely want to avoid offending anyone and try to avoid any action that could be considered problematic. Well, the result is probably innocuous – a horror movie with no blood running through its veins.
They they
Unclassified. Duration: 1h30. Watch on Peacock.
