Conversion therapy stories aren’t for the faint of heart. For decades,thousands of LGBTQ teens and adults have shared horrifying tales of so-calledexperts trying to “change” their sexual orientation using emotionally andphysically traumatizing methods, ranging from electroshock treatments tohypnosis. Organizations like GLAAD have called attention to the harm that thisdiscredited practice has caused, reporting that it contributes to higher ratesof suicide and drug abuse among young people who identify as LGBTQ.
As an out gay man, writer/director John Logan has read a lot about conversiontherapy, and the practice frightened him enough that he felt he had to includeit in his new horror movie, They/Them , which premiered on Peacock earlierthis year. Set at a remote conversion camp, the film follows a group of LGBTQteens who soon discover that the seemingly tolerant owner, Owen Whistler(Kevin Bacon), is anything but.
In the movie’s most chilling sequence, Owen lures one the kids — residentjock, Stuart (Cooper Koch) — into a cabin where he receives his own ClockworkOrange- like __ dose of aversion therapy, enduring electrical shocks as he’sshown images of buff, shirtless men alternated with snaps of lingerie-cladmodels. As Logan tells Yahoo Entertainment, it’s a scene that’s all the moreterrifying because it’s rooted in reality. (Watch our video interview above.)
“One of the things I did is that I talked to kids who had gone throughconversion therapy and they told me their stories,” explains the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of gladiator and The Aviator. “What I learned wasthey are subjected to physical brutality — things like forced marches, fooddeprivation, sleep deprivation, and psychological assault — where identity isquestioned, at first perhaps gently and then more severely. So the idea ofphysical hardship is definitely part of the so-called conversion campexperience, and I thought it would be inauthentic not to represent that.”
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They/Them writer/director John Logan at an LA Outfest premiere event in July2022 (Photo: Alberto Rodriguez/Peacock via Getty Images)
Logan does caution that the scene in They/Them represents “an extreme horrorversion” of aversion therapy, the mode of conversion therapy in the film. Atthe same time, though, some of the stories he’s heard from survivors are justas scary … if not more so. “It’s not far beyond things that I’ve heard aboutactually happening, which is blood-chilling. But one of the things we do incinema — and particularly in horror movies — is we provoke. We provoke ideas.”
As the person being tortured, Koch says that it wasn’t the “most funexperience” to shoot that extended sequence. But the out gay actor understandswhy Logan pushed to include it in the film. “I think that’s the real horror ofthe movie. It’s not necessarily the jump scares or the masked murderer, it’sall the ways that they’re trying to convert us.” He also credits his co-starsBacon and Darwin del Fabro — who plays Gabriel, the duplicitous teen thatlures him into the cabin — with keeping the mood light on set. “Darwin wasputting the wires on me,” Koch says, laughing. “I love when we go to thosedark places,” Del Fabro chimes in. “It was hard for me to see my friend [behurt]but it was fun to play those characters.”
Reflecting on that sequence, Bacon says that he admired Koch’s commitment tocompleting such an intense scene. “It’s not the most pleasant thing to shoot,”says the actor, who had a breakout role in the 1980 slasher favorite, Fridaythe 13th. (His daughter, Sosie Bacon, is currently starring in the horrorhit, smile.) “Everybody was trying to create a space where people felt safe,which is something I’m a big proponent of. I’ll do anything and go anywhere aslong as I feel people are truly not getting traumatized or physically hurt inany kind of way. That’s just not worth it.”
The young cast of the peacock horror movie They/Them. (Photo: JoshStringer/Blumhouse)
For Bacon’s co-star, Carrie Preston — who plays Owen’s wife and the camp’ssupposed mental health expert, Cora — words proved scarier than actions. Earlyon in the film, Cora delivers a blistering monologue to non-binary teenager,Jordan (played by non-binary actor, Theo Germaine), that includes someextremely triggering and NSFW language.
“When I first read the script, I thought, ‘I can’t say those words!'” theactress admits. “Before we even started shooting that day, I checked in withTheo to make sure they were okay. I also said, ‘I’m sorry about what I’mgetting ready to say to you.’ Theo is an amazing actor and person and theyseemed okay, thankfully.”
Logan praises the entire cast for subjecting themselves to his “extreme horrorversion” of a conversion camp. “The actors so believed in the mission of themovie,” he says. “Every single one of these performers deeply believed in thecharacters and what the movie was trying to say. And they through themselvesinto it one-hundred percent, including Darwin and Cooper went into theaversion therapy process with teeth bared.”
They/Them is currently streaming on Peacock