‘Camp’ Review: Melancholy Magical Perfection from Avalon Fast [Fantastic Fest 2025]
Avalon Fast burst onto the indie horror scene with her feature film debut Honeycomb, which she made entirely on her own with the help of her friends (who also starred in the film). Now, with a proper producing team and a bit more budget, Fast has crafted a new tale of feral femininity in the Canadian wilderness. In her sophomore feature, CAMP, which had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2025, Fast crafts an ethereal story about floating through the mires of grief and what it means to trauma bond with those who seem to understand you at a deep, cellular level.
Emily (Zola Grimmer) is a young woman haunted by tragedy. At 16 years old, she accidentally hit and killed a little girl with her car. Then, in the 20s, her best friend overdosed in Emily’s front seat. Death seems to follow her wherever she goes, and after the death of her friend, she sinks deep into the murky depths of grief. To try and extricate herself from the never-ending hells of depression, she heads to a Christian camp in the woods, where she hopes to find purpose and perspective.
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But once she arrives, she finds that while the camp may be advertised as a Jesus camp, the counselors are anything but devout worshippers. Here, Emily falls in with a tight-knit group of female counselors who have known each other for years and see this camp as their annual girls’ trip, where they can drink and do drugs while sometimes watching the kids. Emily is quickly welcomed into their group of misfits, drinking the night away in the middle of the woods and finding comfort in each other’s company.
The longer she spends with her new friends, the more Emily realizes that these women might be more than they seem. There’s something magical about them, and as the full moon approaches, they begin to reveal their secrets. But the beautiful thing is that Emily isn’t afraid. This is a tale about found family and the intricacies of female friendships, beautifully portraying the emotional haze and turmoil of your early adult years, especially if you’ve suffered trauma as a young person.
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It’s the rare summer camp horror movie steeped in melancholy. Even as the sun shines and the campers sing around the campfire, there’s always a heaviness in the air, permeated by a strong sadness underneath the perceived brightness. Fast uses the summer camp to represent a transitional space between society and nature, a liminal space that hangs in the hazy summer air. Time seems to stand still, but also moves incredibly quickly. It’s disorienting, and the perfect way to place us deeply within Emily’s fracturing mind.
While this is Grimmer’s first film, she plays Emily with such beautiful nuance that you’d think she was a seasoned performer. Her ability to capture the experience of grief humanizes and grounds Emily’s character, making her feel deeply familiar before reality starts to dissolve. The entire coven of counselors, played by Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis, and Sophie Bawks-Smith, is stunning and feels like an actual group of girlfriends who have bonded through trauma during their most formative years. They’re beautiful and alluring, mystical yet familiar. This is a deliciously performed film that deserves a spot as one of the best witch films of this century.
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These performances contribute to CAMP’s overall dream-like atmosphere, enhanced by Eily Sprungman’s sumptuous cinematography, which makes every frame feel like a painting. She and Fast’s collaboration results in a rich image that truly captures the magic you can feel pulsating in the natural world. This isn’t cheesy magic, but something more ancient and primordial.
That atmosphere also mimics the haziness of grief and depression, a weight that feels both comforting and suffocating in the same ragged breath. Fast is able to work with her incredible team to create a film that’s not only about witches, but about battling to keep your head above water and the choices you make to keep yourself alive. Underneath the beautiful images and hypnotic performances is a hard, raw honesty about the realities of grieving and the need to see a world where there’s no right or wrong way to experience those emotions.
CAMP is further evidence that Fast is one of her generation’s brightest voices, one that sings about the beautiful and ugly sides of female friendship, as well as the horrors of existing as a young woman in a society that refuses to understand us. This film is tender, yet angry; full of joy, yet deeply sad. CAMP is a film of contradictions, which is exactly what it feels like to survive some days. It’s a heartbreakingly gorgeous portrait of grief, steeped in the magic and femme love.
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CAMP
Summary
‘CAMP’ is further evidence that Avalon Fast is one of her generation’s brightest voices, one that sings about the beautiful and ugly sides of female friendship, as well as the horrors of existing as a young woman in a society that refuses to understand us.
Categorized: Reviews
