Camping Fun (2020).
Camping Fun is the newest horror short from writer/director Thomas Burke. It’s 13 minutes long, just go watch it before you read the rest of the review - I’ll make it super easy for you. No seriously, because I’m about to spoil some stuff in it. You’ve been warned if you read on without watching it.
“I saw a little girl run across that field, near the abandoned house.”
- David
Camping Fun is a found footage flick set in Texas. The set-up is that in 2014, four friends went missing…after six years of silence, investigators recovered a partially damaged video camera, positively identifying the group and their last recorded footage.
I think there’s a lot of potential here. The atmosphere certainly is creepy and you instantly get a sense of who the characters are without spending a lot of time with them. This short also works because I’m not sure you’d want to spend a lot of time with these characters…it’s not that they aren’t well written, but rather that they’re the kind of people that I would want to hang out with for more than 13 minutes. I guess that’s a testament to the writing. The film whizzes by and gets right into the thick of things with the weirdness that’s going on, and although you don’t really know what’s happening (or why) when it’s over, the journey was fun.
“You shouldn’t have slept with him.”
- Lauren
There are two criticisms that I have with the short. The first is that, although found footage films are supposed to be chaotic and shaky, I do think that the shot of the girl in the field (the best shot of the film, in my opinion) had it’s impact lessened by the camera movements. I find it hard to believe that David, holding the camera, want to (or wouldn’t be able to) focus in on that strange moment to capture it both for the documentary they were filming and to show his friends directly afterwards (instead he just walks in and tells them what he saw, but they don’t believe him…SHOW THEM THE FUCKING FOOTAGE, MAN! YOU’RE HOLDING THE DSLR!).
“It’s not my fault you’re stupid.”
- A great boyfriend
The second is that there’s no big “HOLY SHIT” moment that will linger with you forever (and they had a really great opportunity for one!). Think…the ending of The Blair Witch Project, or the girl from The Ring. There’s a scene near the end of the short when Lauren is choking Jamie to death on a table as the footage sort of freezes in and out - what if, instead of choking her, as Jamie puts up a fight, Lauren snaps the top half of Jamie’s jaw back unnaturally against the edge of the table, dislocating it from her lower jaw and leaving half of her lifeless skull looking directly into the camera…lingering for just a moment too long before transitioning to the next shot?
I think there were some great ideas at play here and I’m really looking forward to what Thomas Burke does next. I think it’s definitely worth a watch and it won’t take up much of your time.
What do you think the sinister plan was at play? A cult? Vampires? Was this Lauren’s first lured group? So…many…questions…
