They/Them is a movie that can’t pick a lane and winds up swerving all over the road, running everyone into a ditch, and satisfyingly no one. I think they had a good idea… a twist on the old-fashioned summer camp slasher flick… only its a gay conversion camp and the counselors aren’t the monsters you think. Or are they?

Yeah, that question mark at the end of the sentence above is all you need to know. The flick starts with cool guy Kevin Bacon giving a great performance and lying up a storm. I thought maybe the flick was actually going to go in an interesting direction by making him a genuinely cool guy… but, nah, they’d rather him twirl his mustache and ultimately ham it up.

And also there’s a slasher… and evil asshole camp counselors… and a mystery who the slasher is and no mystery who the assholes are. It’s so, ahem, campy at times, it kind of becomes more of a cartoon. Which is depressing because I was kind of liking the kids and thought the movie might be onto some deeper truths.

I think ultimately this movie is baiting its audience with a title and a scenario that’ll set off the usual suspects and totally alienate the folks on the other side of the aisle. Others will just feel like they are dodging slings and arrows over the whole bloody, messy, confused messaging.

It’s not a terrible film… arguably… depending on your worldview/lived experience. I thought Kevin Bacon was doing a great job… even if he had to ultimately play a dude ten seconds away from tying someone to a railroad track. And… yeah… not sure anyone comes away happy.

Score: 68