Rising Canadian Auteur Avalon Fast’s Bewitching and Surreal Queer Summer Camp Horror
Winner of the Fantastic Fest Next Wave Best Feature Award
Opening in New York June 26 at the IFC Center
Special NY Sneak Previews June 24 and June 25!
Synopsis: Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness. Just as Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.
Dark Sky Films will release festival favorite CAMP, a new coming-of-age horror feature from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, Drinking and Driving) on June 26th in select US theaters, with a New York Theatrical Premiere at the IFC Center with Fast in attendance for the opening weekend.
The film world premiered at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, where it took Best Feature in the Next Wave competition, and picked up the awards for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography out of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Further festival selections include the Seattle International Film Festival, Outfest in Los Angeles, San Francisco’s Frameline, Chicago’s inaugural edition of Beyond Fest, TIFF Next Wave, and international stops at prestigious genre festivals Sitges in Spain and Fantaspoa in Brazil.
CAMP follows Emily, a young woman haunted by a traumatic past, who finds solace as a camp counselor while navigating grief, witchcraft, and the power of female friendship. The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Beautifully lensed by cinematographer Eily Sprungman, CAMP is a melancholic and surreal odyssey into female adolescence that Letterboxd called “a bit like Virgin Suicides-era Sofia Coppola if she had grown up in the woods of British Columbia instead of a penthouse in New York City.” Drawn from Fast’s lived experience, it’s the second film in the writer-director’s signature style—self-labeled GIRL HORROR—which explores the eerie horrors of growing up, infused with haunted female influence.
The film is produced by Taylor Nodrick (Influencers), Jacob Glickman, Jackie De Niverville, Martin Cadieux-Rouillard, and Maya Cadieux-Rouillard. Executive Producers on the film are Paul Cadieux (The Triplets of Belleville), Milan Chakraborty (My Friend Dahmer), Peter Kuplowsky (In a Violent Nature, Psycho Goreman), Michael Peterson (Harpoon), and Sanjay M Sharma (Four Samosas).
Directed by: Avalon Fast
Written by: Avalon Fast
Produced by: Taylor Nodrick, Jacob Glickman, Jackie De Niverville, Martin Cadieux-Rouillard
Starring: Zola Grimmer, Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Ella Reece, Austyn Van De Kamp, Izza Jarvis, Sophie Bawks-Smith
Genre: Horror, Coming of Age
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Run Time: 111 minutes
