X
- 2022
- TV-MA
- Peacock
- 1 h 44 m
- 2022
- TV-MA
- Peacock
- 1 h 44 m
Summary Kevin Bacon plays Owen Whistler in this slasher horror film set at an LGBTQIA+ conversion camp. 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 t...
Directed By: John Logan
Written By: John Logan
- 2022
- TV-MA
- Peacock
- 1 h 44 m
- 2022
- TV-MA
- Peacock
- 1 h 44 m
They/Them
46
2.8
Where to Watch
Summary Kevin Bacon plays Owen Whistler in this slasher horror film set at an LGBTQIA+ conversion camp. 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 t...
Directed By: John Logan
Written By: John Logan
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
46
16% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
58% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
26% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
46
16% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
58% Mixed
11 Reviews
11 Reviews
26% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
As a director, Logan knows how to put us through the horror genre paces, from jump scares and mysterious sounds in the woods, to the obligatory gruesome kills. Time and again, though, we’re reminded that real monster in “They/Them” is bigotry and intolerance.
As soon as you say They/Them out loud for the first time, you’ll realize that it’s a wickedly clever play on words. Unfortunately, that’s the last time the horror film displays any behind-the-scenes wit or gumption.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 32 User Ratings
2.8
13% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
16% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
72% Negative
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 32 User Ratings
2.8
13% Positive
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
16% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
72% Negative
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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The cast is terrific, the dialogue is snappy, and Logan has the kernel of a great idea here, connecting the teenage slaughter that fills most slashers to the real-world cruelty of conversion camps. But They/Them never connects on a gut level, as a horror movie should.
Give writer and director John Logan points for creativity, exceptional inclusion and casting Kevin Bacon. But the movie could have used a lot more of the camp-slasher horror part.
For the majority of its runtime, They/Them seems to entirely forget its pretense of being a horror movie, with long stretches devoid of any sense of tension at all. If its drama was interesting then this wouldn’t have been as much of a problem, but as it stands, the sharp turn into slasher promised by its title feels like a last-minute remembrance in a series of plodding vignettes, something unfortunately furthered by how incredibly toothless the film’s climax comes to be.
Horror movies are no strangers to social commentary, or the desire to be cathartic in how they use violence. Yet the latest example of those impulses, They/Them, illustrates how tricky that proposition can be, in a story that at various times feels creepy, exploitative and preachy, without becoming particularly tense or scary.
There's just so much ineptitude running (or rather, leisurely walking) through They/Them — from a lack of fright, not a single interesting character, wooden performances, and no discernable plot — that one would assume this project came from a first-time writer-director.
I dug the subject matter and the characters, the execution was fairly run of the mill. Considering the subject matter and the current climate, this movie could have been a whole lot worse.
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This is the kind of movie that can go from so dumb it's good to at least kind of entertaining. The cast really does a good job here but there are so many unintentionally funny, cringe-worthy moments that it just takes you out of it. How this was written by such an acclaimed writer is just beyond me. Is it anywhere near as bad as the score indicates? Not at all. It just isn't good.
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A group of young people, representing all colors of the **** rainbow, arrives at a conversion camp run by Kevin Bacon's character. Unfortunately, the opening kill is the best one in the movie. From there, it's lots of discussion about being one's true self and other sexual identity issues. Most of the remaining brutality comes in the final 30 minutes and none of it is especially original or even upsetting. Theo Germaine heads up the group of teens and his acting chops are improving with every project. Even with a cast of **** actors, the message takes dominance over any thrills.
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A **** conversion camp slasher. And you'd think you'd seen it all.
Ironically, it might have worked if it weren't for the fact that it soon starts to feel unpleasantly exploitative, and to use members of the LGBTQ community as a source of horror while torturing them for precisely that reason, needless to say I'm not really sure what the idea behind the creation of this movie was. Kevin Bacon should not be in movies like this.
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