"I can't make you straight," Kevin Bacon's sinister Owen Whistler tells the kids who've just arrived at his camp. "But if you give us this weekend, we might be able to help."
Writer-director John Logan's (Penny Dreadful) new slasher flick about the horrors of conversion therapy is coming to Peacock on August 5, and Blumhouse has debuted an intense new trailer.
They/Them (pronounced They-Slash-Them) takes place at a conversion therapy camp which attempts to “turn” LGBTQ+ teenagers straight and cisgender. Set over a week-long session, the film focuses on the various campers, led by trans and nonbinary Jordan (Theo Germaine), as they undergo psychological torment from the camp’s programming.
When an unidentified killer begins claiming victims, the kids must team up to protect each other, both from the killer and from the camp staff.
Anna Chlumsky and Carrie Preston will also star as Camp Whistler staff members, along with Quei Tann, Austin Crute, Monique Kim, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch and Darwin del Fabro as Jordan’s fellow campers.
The movie will serve as the directorial debut of Gladiator and The Aviator writer John Logan.
“They/Them has been germinating within me my whole life,” Logan said in a statement. “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 trailer and poster below, along with detailed cast/character breakdowns, and let us know what you think.
• Kevin Bacon (he/him) plays Owen Whistler, the conversion camp director who runs Whistler Camp alongside several counselors 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.