Every year, horror fans are eager to see which films Blumhouse will put out. In 2022, the company has releasedThe Black Phone, based on the Joe Hill short story, along with theFirestarterreboot, the country music movieTorn Hearts, andDashcam,Rob Savage’s follow-up to his popular Zoom filmHost. Still to come this year: Vengeance, the final film in David Gordon Green’s trilogyHalloween Ends, andThey/Them.
They/Themstars Kevin Bacon and is a much anticipated horror film that will be released later in the summer of 2022, and horror fans definitely want to learn more about it.
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The Plot
InThey/Them, Owen Whistler and his wife are in charge of Whistler Camp, a camp for LGBTQ high schoolers that is all about conversion therapy. As new campers are greeted for the season, people start getting murdered, and it’s clear that there are many sinister things going on here.
Director John Logan shared that he has always been a fan of the horror genre and talked about why he wanted to make this movie. According toPeople, Logan said, “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.”
Blumhouse produced a documentary calledPrey Away, along with Ryan Murphy, and the film was at the June 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. The film also became available for streaming on Netflix.
There’s adebate about whether the slasher genre should be elevated, andThey/Themis exactly the kind of movie that audiences want to see. It’s a slasher with all those filmmaking elements but it’s also examining a very important subject. There are manyhorror movies set in the summer, including at camp, as this is a setting that always works.They/Themtakes that classic summer camp location and the horror lies in what Owen and his team are doing.
The teaser trailer opens with Owen greeting campers and saying, “This is a safe space… for everyone.” Owen has an evil grin on his face and it’s clear that, of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Cast
Kevin Bacon plays the main character Owen Whistler, and Carrie Preston plays his wife Cora. Anna Chlumsky plays Molly, who has just been hired at the camp and who is a medic. Theo Germaine plays the role of Jordan. Chlumsky is best known for starring in the sweet tearjerkerMy Girl(1991) as Vada Sultenfuss opposite Macaulay Culkin. The actor has also starred inVeep,Inventing Anna, and most recently, voiced the character of Charlotte Pickles in theRugratsreboot.
The movie’s other actors include Austin Crute, Cooper Koch, Darwin del Fabro, Monique Kim, Anna Lore, and Quei Tann.
Kevin Bacon is no stranger to the horror genre and fans anticipate that he will give an incredible performance inThey/Them. FromKevin Bacon’s TV seriesThe Followingto the 1999 filmStir of Echoes, which suffered from poor timingas it came out around the same time as the acclaimedThe Sixth Sense, Bacon portrays tough and vulnerable characters perfectly.
Theo Germaine’s character, Jordan, is trans and nonbinary and, according toVariety, agreed to go to the camp and then is planning to become emancipated afterward. Jordan is the character who begins looking into the history of the camp when people begin getting killed. John Logan toldEntertainment Weekly, “The movie opens with their face and closes with their face, and their journey is the emotional heart of the movie. I’d seen Theo on TV and thought they were really fascinating, so they read for me, and it was fantastic. I couldn’t be more thrilled and excited that so many people are going to get to see what Theo can do.”
The Crew
John Logan is the director ofThey/Themand it’s Logan’s first film that he has directed.
Logan has writtenAny Given Sunday(1999),Gladiator(2000),Star Trek: Nemesis(2002),The Last Samurai(2003),Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street(2007),Skyfall(2012), and most recently,Alien: Covenant(2017).
Release Date
Peacock is a great place to find quality TV shows and also horror movies, asHalloween Killsdebuted in theaters and Peacockat the same time.
According toThe Wrap, Jason Blum wantedHalloween Killsto be released on Peacock becauseFreaky, which was released in 2022, didn’t do well at the box office. Blum said, “I didn’t want to have a movie that I’m really proud of that I think is great and have there be an excuse why people didn’t see it. So I’m the one who pitched Universal, then I pitched Jamie [Lee Curtis] and David [Gordon Green], and it was my idea. I stand behind it. I’m glad that we’re doing it.”
