Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Avalon Fast
Starring: Zola Grimmer, Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Ella Reece
The summer camp has proven a fertile ground for both horror movies and coming of age dramas. In writer/director Avalon Fast's Camp, the titular retreat provides the backdrop for a film that blends both these traditions. This is a coming of age horror story, one in which a young woman learns to embrace her darkness in the ironic setting of a Christian summer camp.
Twentysomething Emily's (Zola Grimmer) short life has been marred by tragedy and guilt. As a 16-year-old she hit and killed a four-year-old girl in a road accident. This piece of backstory is delivered during a game of truth and dare with shades of Kristoffer Borgli's recent black comedy The Drama. The partygoers subjected to Emily's grim confession don't know how to respond, passing off their discomfort with vacuous Gen-Z speak about "safe spaces" and such superficial nonsense. Tragedy strikes Emily once again that night when her best friend overdoses on bad coke in her car.
Months later, Emily is trapped in an understandable funk, convinced that such lightning striking twice is evidence that she's an evil person. At the behest of her dad (Michael Tan), Emily makes the long train journey to the far North of Canada to take a job as counsellor at a summer camp for "damaged kids." The camp is ostensibly Christian, but this ethos is only really practiced by head counsellors Dan (Austyn Van de Kamp) and Jo (Sophie Bawks-Smith). Emily is surprised and relieved to find that the other counsellors like to get drunk and stoned. She is taken under the wing of a group of young women - Clara (Alice Wordsworth), Rosie (Cherry Moore), Nev (Lea Rose Sebastianis) and Hope (Ella Reece) - who met each other as young campers, and who now return each year as counsellors.
The great irony is that these girls are a coven of witches. Much like how the vampires of 30 Days of Night travel to Alaska to avail of its suitable conditions, the camp, far removed from civilisation, provides the perfect location for such women to be themselves. For the first time in years, Emily feels a weight lifted from her shoulders as she joins the girls in their rituals and finds the sorority she has been unaware she needed.
Initially it might seem as though Fast's film is set to throw darts at the easy target of Christianity, with Dan and Jo portrayed as a pair of stuffy squares in stark contrast to the free-living witches. But this is a movie that is simultaneously respectful towards and suspicious of all organised belief systems. Dan and Jo are genuinely good people, and while the witches are clearly a lot more fun on a night out, they're also evil sociopaths who require the sacrifice of others.
I've always subscribed to Groucho Marx's maxim about never wanting to join a club that would have me as a member, and I'm especially suspicious of people who bond together over philosophical or religious beliefs. As such, despite seeing the positive impact of the coven's initially kooky but harmless behaviour on Emily, I was naturally primed for things to go south. Camp explores the thin line between a commune and a cult, and how religion exploits weakness. Like most religions and cults, the coven here sucks away individuality and replaces it with group think and bigotry towards others. The witches justify their cruelty towards those outside their flock by dehumanising those who don't share their beliefs.
Fast takes the approach of many a gangster movie, using the adrenalin rush of her narrative to seduce the audience in the same way as her protagonist is seduced by the (not so, as it turns out) free spirited witches. These girls are exactly the type of people any confused young person would want to make friends with, living a seemingly aspirational life free of the burdens of the modern world. But they have also freed themselves from the burden of morality. Do what thou will is the whole of their law, and as Emily becomes increasingly brainwashed by their teachings the movie heads towards a third tragedy for Emily, the loss of her self. Rather than embracing her pain and guilt, Emily turns towards narcissism.
Grimmer's sensitive central performance is heartbreaking. We warm to Emily early on, so to see her lose herself in such an awful way is painfully affecting. A late phone call between Emily and her father will reduce you to a sobbing mess.
For a low budget Canadian production, Fast's film is a feast for the eyes. Along with taking full advantage of the stunning surrounds of rural Canada, Camp employs animated magic realist backdrops, an anime-inspired dream sequence and Jean Rollin-esque imagery of the young witches living their best lives. All this and a profound weighing up of the pros and cons of spirituality makes for a gripping, emotionally wrenching and intellectually rewarding experience.
