They/Them (pronounced as "They Slash Them") is a 2022 American slasher horror movie. The movie is the directorial debut of John Logan and produced by James Blum through Blumhouse Productions.
A group of LGBT+ teens arrive in a wilderness conversion therapy camp. While the director, Owen Whistler (Kevin Bacon), acts friendly and welcoming to them, insisting he isn't homophobic while only offering them the option to change if they want that, obviously they're unhappy to be there. Before too long, it's clear even worse things are in store, as the camp is naturally less positive than Owen's made it out to be, but there's a killer in their midst as well.
Not to be confused with the 2020 short film from New Zealand.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Full of nods to Friday the 13th, complete with Kevin Bacon.
- Asshole Victim: The victims are all cruel, abusive people involved with conversion therapy.
- Blatant Lies: Sarah and Zane claim to both be “cured” of being gay. It's shown they engage in frottage together while staring at pictures of attractive people from the opposite sex, so unsurprisingly it's false.
- Boyish Short Hair: Butch bisexual girl Veronica has very short hair in a punk-like style which is dyed partly red.
- Butch Lesbian: Although she's actually bisexual, Veronica fits the butch stereotype quite well, with short hair, masculine clothing, and aggressive attitude (as that was toward the conversion therapy camp staff, one can't blame her), ending up with Lipstick Lesbian Kim. Her bisexuality is also an Informed Attribute, as Kim is the only one Veronica shows attraction to.
- But Not Too Bi: Veronica tells other people she's bisexual, though she only shows attraction to Kim, a Lipstick Lesbian whom she meets (of course, the guys in the film are mostly gay, so it's not surprising).
- Camp Gay: Toby comes to camp in quite flamboyant, stylish clothing, with vocal fry and a love of musical theatre.
- Cast Full of Gay: Set in a conversion therapy camp, the cast is mostly LGBT+ youth, with a bisexual girl, a lesbian girl, a nonbinary teen, a trans girl and three gay boys. Two of the staff also claim they're "ex" gay, with another also revealed to be LGBT+.
- Cure Your Gays: The center of the plot, as the cast are residents and staff of a conversion therapy camp for LGBT+ youth. "Conversion" methods range from trying to have them act out in gender-normative ways to brutal aversion therapy via Electric Torture.
- Delinquent Hair: Surly, rebellious butch bisexual Veronica has very short hair dyed partially red in a punk-like style. However, she's a good person who's understandably pissed at the conversion therapy camp leaders.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title (pronounced "They slash Them") refers to both nonbinary pronouns (as Jordan uses), and a killer whose gender at first is unknown slashing a group of people.
- Electric Torture: The camp uses electroshocks for aversion therapy, making a gay teen watch images of attractive scantily clad people, both male and female, electrocuting him as he views the former to stop his attraction toward them. One of Molly's friends died from this, and she says they've killed multiple teens using it.
- Evil Counterpart: Molly is one to the other campers, as she is also gay and was brought to the conversion camp as a teenager, where she bonded with her campmates. She then became a Serial Killer to avenge one of them.
- Evil vs. Evil: Serial killer Molly versus the cruel staff members of a conversion therapy camp.
- Faux Affably Evil: Owen acts like a Reasonable Authority Figure who only wants to give LGBT+ teens the option of changing assuming that's what they want, and acts very chummy toward them. It's soon revealed he's a deeply queerphobic, abusive man who holds ultra-traditional views on gender while using brutal methods attempting to "convert" them.
- Gaslighting: Cora acts sympathetic to Jordan while in their session, then quickly twists their words to claim that Jordan's just presented as nonbinary so they'll feel special, while really being a lesbian and confused about this.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Veronica, a brunette, has a more fiery temper and rather butch style. She's contrasted to Kim, a gentle, shy femme blonde.
- Honey Trap: Gabriel seduces Stu and they have sex, only for it to be revealed he was in cahoots with the camp staff, flushing out LGBT+ teens who need more aversion therapy in their view.
- Hypocrite: Sarah claims she's ex-gay, then sexually harasses Kim after baking class. Veronica and Kim both angrily denounce her for this later.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Kim is a sweet, feminine blonde who's easily intimidated and really wants to conform by being straight. Veronica, a more fiery, aggressive butch punk girl, insists there's nothing wrong with being gay, resisting any demand for changing.
- Lingerie Scene: Veronica and Kim both strip to their bras before having sex on the dock.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Kim is a demure lesbian Girly Girl with long hair.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places:
- Veronica and Kim have sex on the dock.
- Gabriel and Stu did it standing up later in a cabin.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The killer wears a creepy skull-like mask while killing people.
- Manly Gay: Stu is a handsome, muscular gay jock.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple:
- Butch bisexual Veronica and Lipstick Lesbian Kim become a couple.
- In their final scene, Manly Gay Stu and Camp Gay Toby have some Ship Tease.
- The Peeping Tom: The creepy groundskeeper Balthazar is revealed to have a hidden video feed to the women's shower, where he watches them. He's killed while doing so. He's also the hacker of the group. We see a laptop running a hacking program on one of the camper's smartphones among a pile of other smartphones.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Owen, and by extension all of the staff except Molly, are involved with trying to "convert" LGBT+ youth, with him in particular shown as having very queerphobic, hyper-masculine beliefs.
- Preserve Your Gays: All the teens are LGBT+ and none of them are targeted by the killer. The queer members of the staff however... This makes sense then as it turns out that the killer is LGBT+ too, a member of the staff who's targeting the others for their abuses. Although in the broadest sense, it's averted with several counselors who are themselves gay but chose to aid and abet in the camp's cruelty.
- Pretty Boy: Gabriel is a very slim, handsome androgynous-looking gay man with long hair.
- The Protagonist: While the film has an ensemble main cast, it's clear that Jordan is the film's central character. This is evident in the climax where they are the one who confronts both Whistler and the killer.
- Revenge: Molly it turns out is killing the camp's staff to avenge her friend, who like her was once there, and died from their abusive “aversion therapy”, along with stopping them hurting other LGBT+ youth in the future.
- Revenge Is Not Justice: When Molly tempts Jordan to help her target more conversion camps, they turn their back on her, wanting nothing more than to leave with their friends and make a new life with them.
- Samus Is a Girl: The killer is dressed in a bulky, concealing costume at first, killing people easily including multiple men. She's revealed to be Molly, with no hint before about her gender.
- Sex Starts, Story Stops: Veronica and Kim having sex, then later Stu with Darwin, really come out of nowhere with their doing this not adding anything to the plot.
- Sobriquet Sex Switch: Alexandra's deadname is Alexander, as the camp staff call her.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Molly is the killer, it turns out, as a former resident of the camp whose friend was killed by their "aversion therapy" electroshock treatment. Owen didn't even remember her. She targets him and all the others, who have been abusing or even killing LGBT+ youth for many years trying to "cure" them.
- Title Drop: "They/them" are Jordan's pronouns, used early on when Jordan first arrives at the camp.
- Token Good Teammate: Molly is the only staff member who isn't fully on board with their conversion therapy, genuinely sympathizing with the LGBT+ youth while trying to help them surreptitiously. It turns out she's LGBT+ herself, once was in the camp for the same therapy, while also the killer who has been murdering them to avenge a friend who their "aversion therapy" killed along with stopping them abusing or killing more teens like them.
- Token Minority: The staff and residents at the camp are mostly white, with a few exceptions.
- Toby is black.
- Gabriel's background isn't stated, but he speaks with an accent and was played by a Brazilian, Darwin del Fabro.
- Trans Equals Gay: Cora claims Jordan is really not nonbinary, just a confused lesbian.
- Trans Tribulations: Alexandra is only at the camp because her parents had threatened to ostracize her, forbidding her to see her little brother if she didn't. Then at the camp Sarah walks in on Alexandra showering, discovering via this that she's a trans woman, after which she gets forced to use the men's dormitory and shower, as Owen feels she deceived him for (unlike Jordan) not disclosing her status on arrival.
- Twofer Token Minority: There's a couple women of color at the camp, which is otherwise mostly white.
- Alexandra is black.
- Veronica is of East Asian ancestry.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Gabriel and Stu are making out in the lake with this leading toward sex, but then go to a cabin at Gabriel's suggestion rather than just hook up right there.
