Emily (Zola Grimmer) can’t help but be forthcoming when, in a juvenile game of truth or dare at a party, she’s asked to confess her biggest regret. She first opts for a harmless revelation, but when probed, she admits to having taken someone’s life by accident. The night will end with another unexpected death under her watch. That’s the tragic setup to Avalon Fast’s “Camp,” a transfixing and tonally mischievous tale of sisterhood forged from trauma, grief and witchcraft. But before the explicitly otherworldly takes over, a despondent Emily arrives at a summer camp for troubled children where she’ll work as one of the counselors. It’s ironic that she’ll be providing support to younger kids in her state. The hope is that being among peers in darkness might bring out some light.
All the girls Emily meets at the camp have been attending for years, but they quickly embrace her, especially the vivacious Rosie (Cherry Moore) and Clara (Alice Wordsworth), the group’s alluring de facto leader. From there, “Camp” evokes “The Craft” with a dose of the esoteric, forest-fairy aesthetic that the musical act Florence + the Machine has for long procured as their signature — but in an indie film context that allows for evocative formal inventiveness. Fast cultivates eeriness, but also a sense of enigmatic wonder that, while decidedly unsubtle, is welcome: Shining stars that at times take over the frame and fantastically artificial backdrops place the narrative in an interstitial space between reality and an intoxicating, dream-like realm.
