Dark Sky Films
Presents…
ARRIVING ON VOD FRIDAY, JULY 10
A Surreal and Hypnotic Queer Coming-of-Age Horror Destined for Cult Status
Winner of the Fantastic Fest Next Wave Best Feature Award
Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh at 89% 🍅
The Sophomore Feature from Avalon Fast, the Twenty-Six-Year-Old Canadian Filmmaker-on-the-Rise
Available on the Letterboxd Video Store, Amazon, Apple, Fandango, Google Play, and YouTube
“Splits the difference between Panos Cosmatos and Jane Schoenbrun, and demands to be seen by fans of both.”
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“CAMP moved me more than most contemporary cinema I’ve seen in recent years. An early career masterwork: a visceral and romantic tone poem about the painful passage from queer adolescence to adulthood… [It’s] in the auteurist tradition of filmmakers like Lucile Hadžihalilović, Mia Hansen-Løve, Jennifer Reeder, and Kelly Reichardt.”
– Jane Schoenbrun
NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS
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.
Canadian filmmaker Avalon Fast‘s sophomore feature CAMP, a queer coming-of-age summer camp horror fantasy, world premiered at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, where it took Best Feature in the Next Wave competition. Further festival selections include the Seattle International Film Festival, OutfestNEXT in Los Angeles, San Francisco’s Frameline, Chicago’s inaugural edition of Beyond Fest, TIFF Next Wave, and more.
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 and hypnotically scored by Max Robin, 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).
About the director:
Avalon Fast hails from Vancouver Island, BC. In 2019, they shot their first film, Honeycomb, which was selected for the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to screen at Boston Underground, Calgary Underground, Etheria LA, Fantasia, and many more. In 2026, they premiered Drinking and Driving—co-directed, co-starring, and co-written with Jillian Frank—at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. In addition to writing and directing, Fast recently starred in Louise Weard’s cultural breakout trans DIY epic Castration Movie Anthology, co-starred in prolific young filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay’s sapphic horror The Serpent’s Skin, and appeared in Jane Schoenbrun’s recent Cannes sensation Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
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
Festivals: Beyond Fest Chicago, Boston Underground Film Festival, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Calgary Underground Film Festival, Fantaspoa, Fantastic Fest, Frameline, IndieLisboa, OutfestNEXT, Seattle International Film Festival, Sicilia Queer, SXSW Sydney, TIFF Next Wave Film Festival.
Awards: Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography; Fantaspoa Special Mention – Best Fever Dream; Fantastic Fest Next Wave Best Feature Award; Sicilia Queer Audience Award.
