The LGBTQ slasher horror film “They/Them” was created for a specific audience, but even the most left-leaning critics say it’s a total mess.
“They/Them,” a Peacock original, stars Kevin Bacon as the head of a conversion camp that’s being plagued by a psycho killer.
Per Rotten Tomatoes, “Several queer campers join [Bacon as Owen 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 an unidentified axe murderer starts claiming victims, things get even more dangerous.”
The thriller currently has a 29/100 critic score and 15/100 audience rating after its August 5 release.
“’They/Them’ never connects on a gut level, as a horror movie should. It’s too somber and plodding — a ‘message movie’ delivered in a drab package,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in its review.
CNN called out writer/director John Logan for failing to get the message across. Their reviewer said the story “at various times feels creepy, exploitative and preachy, without becoming particularly tense or scary.”
Fred Topel from UPI said, “As an out gay filmmaker, Logan may have something sincere to say both about ant-LGBTQ tactics and the slasher movie genre. Unfortunately, combining them ends up sabotaging both sides of the story.”
The Daily Wire contributor Christian Toto said the film is terrible to the core and doesn’t live up to the standards of the horror genre.
“Audiences may need Post-It notes on their screens to remind them it’s a horror movie,” he wrote. “Add clunky romances, endless dialogue that would make a Hallmark movie scribe cringe and an embarrassing dearth of scares and you’ve got a missed opportunity on an epic scale.”
Like other critics, he calls out the cheesy camp sing-a-long to a Pink song as an especially cringe-worthy moment.
Toto concludes that the movie is “woke to its core, but that isn’t its fatal flaw. It’s cartoonish, scare-free and so intent on empowerment it skimps on every horror movie essential.”
Most critics hated it, but Gary M. Kramer from Salon had high praise for the thriller. He described “They/Them” as “a smart and savvy film that demonstrates the value of putting queer heroes in the horror genre as well as the damaging effects of conversion therapy and not allowing people to be who they are.”
“They/Them” is currently streaming on Peacock.