They/Them ended up sneaking up on me. I hadn’t even watched the trailer but that’s mostly because I had never had a chance to see it anywhere other than my phone. I went in only learning it had to do with a gay conversion camp and I learned that from the Peacock synopsis. I just knew that it would be a summer camp slasher and that’s honestly all I wanted to know. They/Them is more of a throwback of a slasher with the body count not being massive and it giving you time to care for the characters.
They/Them was written and directed John Logan and I wondered why that name sounded familiar. I figured out that he had written several things I’ve seen including Skyfall, Spectre, and Alien: Covenant. The concept of the movie is really interesting but the follow through doesn’t completely stick the landing. The reveal of the killer is probably something that people will probably see coming some people will see coming, unless they’re like me and engrossed in the movie. The performances by the cast kept me too engrossed to really see too much of anything that was going to happen unless it was too obvious.
Theo Germaine, Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Austin Crute, Quei Tann, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, Monique Kim, Darwin del Fabro, Hayley Griffith, and Boone Platt all put in amazing performances. Theo Germaine is a hell of a lead. Their performance is what draws you into the story. They make you care about their character, Jordan. Carrie Preston plays a much different character than I was used to seeing from her. The same goes for Bacon, Griffith, Zane, and Ashworth. One of my favorite moments is when Tann goes all mama bear with the other characters.
The effects in They/Them are pretty good for the most part. The use of CG outside of kills seem to be obvious, though it could just be the lighting in those scenes is weird. The practical effects were good but pretty subtle. The music by Drum & Lace is good.
They/Them is a cool slasher that doesn’t do as much as it could with the premise but that didn’t take anything away from the movie for me. I don’t know if this is going to be a hit, but I really hope it makes its money back. I want more original horror movies to be made like this, since horror is the go to genre for stories like this. You can watch They/Them on Peacock and I think you should. I give They/Them 7.5 dresses out of 10.