For Upcoming Camp Screenings, Please Check Below.
If you’ve spent any time in the darker corners of Canadian indie cinema lately, the name Avalon Fast may already have reached you. Whether that is her legal name or the identity she wants the masses to latch onto, honestly, it is a cool name to have. It invites word association: Mention Avalon and most people will think of King Arthur. And, for a particular generation, Morgaine le Fay is a figurehead to remember because of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel. That does not necessarily say anything about Fast herself, but after Honeycomb and CAMP, it is hard to unsee when this talent’s works leans on folk horror, witchcraft, and feminine ritual.
After her debut with the former, which focused on all-girl power, and her latest which carries similar themes but with more of a folk bent, I found myself wanting to queue up The Eagles’ “Witchy Woman.” As it played during the incantations near the climax, that personal added texture made the film sing for me rather than drag. Fast prefers to call her style “girl horror,” and when her concepts focus on identity, grief, and reconciliation, what appears on screen does not feel especially supernatural or mysterious at all. That’s unless the people at Bohemian Grove are looking to lodge a complaint.
I also cannot help noticing similarities with the Adams Family body of work. Their filmmaking triumvirate is just as interested in grief and ritual. Their world comes out of folklore from Eastern Canada, and the other is firmly West Coast. I appreciate that the first film was made in my own backyard. Much of it was shot on Cortes Island, and viewers familiar with the area will likely recognize the settings.
As for what this latest feature is about, the setting is actually around Kananaskis, Alberfta. While that’s not a big deal, I had to wonder about the location since it helped added to the atmosphere. When Emily (Zola Grimmer) needs to detach herself from the world, it’s nice to know where the action is happening as sometimes, the film won’t say where in the world the story takes place.
After watching her best friend die in front of her and surviving a car accident that claimed another life, leaving her the only one left, just what viewers witness is how comfortable she seems with all of it. After taking her father’s advice and trying a real summer getaway, the friends she meets at camp, Clara (Alice Wordsworth), Rosie (Cherry Moore), Nev (Lea Rose Sebastianis), Eden (Izza Jarvis), and Hope (Ella Reece), are not exactly the sort a parent would approve of.
The women soon invite Emily into their circle, and what they summon is no Elder God named Shub Niggorath. Had there been a true Lovecraftian spin, I would be in love. Instead, the horror is limited to what a young filmmaker can afford to build in the garage. Diehard gorehounds may feel short-changed, though I think the strength of the performances is enough to carry the film.
Each of the young women has a clear personality, and the soundtrack reminds me of what I have come to expect from the Adams Family’s work, a sobering synth score composed in-house. Whether it is meant as a nod to Suspiria is doubtful. There are also low-budget attempts at surrealist imagery, but that is where I start to detach. I am used to a certain look when filmmakers reach for Dalí, and dreamlike imagery is not easy to pull off. Still, I suspect Fast will get there in time.
Overall, CAMP works more as a coming-of-age narrative than as supernatural exposition. It would also benefit from easing off the idea of one universal religion as the answer to everything. Forgiveness is not the key, at least not in the way most bibles frame it. Redemption is, and that is a long way from what I understand about hedgecraft. I suspect the more Fast comes to know about paganism, the more fascinating her later films will become. Had she dug deeper into witchcraft’s historic roots, this would feel less like an exercise in faith and more like something genuinely memorable.
3½ Stars out of 5
CAMP Trailer
Upcoming Screenings:
June 26 – Revue Cinema, Toronto, ON – June 26
Q&A with star Lea Rose Sebastianis & Executive Producer Peter Kuplowsky
July 1/2 – Bytowne Cinema, Ottawa, ON
July 2-7 – Dave Barber Cinematheque, Winnipeg, MB
July 9 – Fleapit (Carbon Arc), Halifax, NS
July 17-22 – VIFF Centre, Vancouver, BC
