By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The Canadian filmmaker’s second feature is a summer-camp horror with a witchy emphasis.
Dark Sky Films has announced that it has grabbed U.S. distribution rights to CAMP, from writer/director Avalon Fast, who won a great deal of attention for her debut movie HONEYCOMB. The new film has its world premiere at Fantastic Fest tonight, and will also play the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on Sunday, October 19 at 7 p.m. CAMP stars Zola Grimmer, Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp, Sophie Bawks-Smith, Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith; the synopsis: “Emily [Grimmer] 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.”
“CAMP is a hard story and one that is very close to me,” Fast says. “It took time to find the right people to support me and this vision. From our first introduction, Dark Sky Films were immediately invested and motivated to make this film happen. I am honored to have the opportunity to share this film with the world and at Fantastic Fest to start.”
“Avalon Fast is one of the most exciting young voices in the horror genre,” says Dark Sky executive VP Greg Newman. “Her bold vision and fearless approach to storytelling make CAMP a breakout film, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring it to audiences.”
Executive producer Peter Kuplowsky adds, “Upon seeing her early shorts and first feature HONEYCOMB, I was struck by Avalon’s confident style and eerie aesthetics, and immediately sought to support CAMP, which evocatively expands on her signature dreamlike interplay of creeping dread and coming-of-age anxieties. With Dark Sky Films’ track record of championing boundary-pushing genre cinema, I am not surprised that they also connected with this haunting fairy tale horror, but am overjoyed that they will be shepherding the film towards savvy audiences that relish the strange and unusual.”
Check out the first clip and poster for CAMP below:
