“This is a safe space,” Kevin Bacon’s character Owen Whistler says in the teaser trailer for They/Them, an upcoming horror movie set at an LGBTQ+ conversion camp. But based on the masked killer we glimpse in the footage, that doesn’t seem likely.
In They/Them: “Several queer and trans campers join Whistler for a week of programming intended to ‘help them find a new sense of freedom.’ As the camp’s methods become increasingly more psychologically unsettling, the campers must work together to protect themselves. When a mysterious killer starts claiming victims, things get even more dangerous.”
John Logan (Penny Dreadful) wrote, directed, and executive produced the film, which is set to debut on Peacock in the U.S. on August 5th. Here’s a closer look at the cast:
* Kevin Bacon (he/him) plays Owen Whistler, the conversion camp director who runs Whistler Camp alongside several counsellors including his wife, Cora.
* Anna Chlumsky (she/her) plays Molly, the camp’s medic and newest employee.
* Carrie Preston (she/her) plays Cora Whistler, a licensed therapist in charge of the campers’ therapy sessions, and the wife of camp director Owen Whistler.
* Theo Germaine (they/them) plays Jordan, a transgender and non-binary camper from a religious background who has made a deal with their parents to legally emancipate if attending Whistler doesn’t “work.”
* Quei Tann (she/her) plays Alexandra, a transgender woman whose parents have threatened to kick her out of the house if she didn’t attend the camp.
* Austin Crute (he/him) plays Toby, a gay camper who negotiated with his parents for a trip to New York in exchange for a week at Whistler Camp.
* Monique Kim (she/her) plays Veronica, a bisexual camper who wants to stop fighting who she really is.
* Anna Lore (she/her) plays Kim, a closeted lesbian camper who puts on a perfectly crafted front for her family and friends, assuming that when she fits in, she’ll finally be loved.
* Cooper Koch (he/him) plays Stu, a jock with aspirations of a swim scholarship and joining his father’s fraternity – things he doesn’t feel he can achieve if he’s open about being gay.
* Darwin del Fabro (he/him) plays Gabriel, a sensitive gay camper tired of the persistent name-calling and bullying he’s endured his entire life.
“They/Them has been germinating within me my whole life,” explains the writer-director. “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.”
Check out the teaser trailer below!
Words: Samantha McLaren (@themeatispeople)
