The first time I saw Avalon Fast’s work was when Honeycomb played virtually at the Chattanooga film fest in 2022. I recall that while not everything about the film worked for me, I knew that they would be a filmmaker whose work I’d always be interested in watching. Between then and now, I was also able to find a copy of one of their first shorts, Blood Soup, and that cemented it for me. Fast, having an early gastro horror short and interesting ideas overall made CAMP a highly anticipated movie for me (especially since it played at Chattanooga Film Festival on the ground, and I was only attending virtually). Fortunately, my intuition was right. CAMP is further proof that Avalon Fast is a filmmaker to keep an eye on.
In CAMP, “Emily is the cause of two tragedies early in her life; her dad suggests she go to a Camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is taken in by the other counsellors; they accept her as she is and wrap her in a veil of peace & forgiveness. Emily stands at the forefront of a new kind of life, but there’s a voice out there in the woods she can’t ignore, telling Emily to go home.”
At this point, most of us have probably proclaimed how sick we are of grief horror. Hollywood has a tendency to take something interesting and
continuously regurgitate it to us until it’s meaningless. Fast’s sophomore feature, CAMP, goes against the grain with this idea and delivers something that feels fresh. Instead of grief manifesting as some monster, it examines the struggle to feel normal while also grieving. If you’ve ever lost someone, been the cause of loss or heartache, etc., you know that there is a guilt that lingers when you start to feel happy or like you were in the “before times”. It can feel like that sense of grief is pulling you back towards it, when all you want to do is escape. As viewers, we see Emily experience this. Throughout the film, Emily calls her father, showing that she’s not quite ready to let go of that guilt and grief. We also see flashbacks throughout the film. However, they are done in a sort of analog fashion.
Speaking of aesthetics, this film is absolutely beautiful. It’s incredibly shot, and there are even moments that feel downright ethereal. Adding to this are some of the performances. Zola Grimmer and Alice Wordsworth. Grimmer’s portrayal of Emily is well executed. The way she interacts with others and the world Fast has built really allows audiences to connect with the character. Wordsworth’s Clara is the leader of the group and is a large draw for Emily. She has a vibe that you wish your big sister or a best friend would have.
As much as I enjoyed CAMP, it’s not without its flaws. There is a bit of style over substance. Character motivations and development could be improved. Eden (portrayed by Izza Jarvis) is basically written off with no further thought except that she’s “messed up,” and the rest of the camp kids just disappear, having gone home. The motivations of the coven seem to go from sisterly to nefarious and back without explanation. It often feels like there will be a third act, similar to The Craft, based on the buildup during the first two acts. It doesn’t need to have that; however, it felt more like the story changed during the writing process, and other parts weren’t changed to reflect that. Given this, I think the runtime could also have been edited down a smidge. There are some shots that linger a hair too long.
All that said, I really did like CAMP overall. It’s incredible to think that this is only the second feature for Avalon Fast. I’m definitely excited to continue following their work, as I think each film will only get better and better. Watching this makes me want to pull out my Blu-ray of Honeycomb and watch it again. CAMP is now available on VOD.
My Rating: 4/5