Camping Fun Review
Camping Fun is a 2020 found footage short horror film written and directed by Thomas Burke and David Eimer.
Found footage films exploded in popularity after the rise of Paranormal Activity in the 2010s, coming off the heels of obviously The Blair Witch Project in 1999, but then just as quickly faded back away. Camping Fun makes, a strong case for why such films deserve more than a passing glance especially in the year 2021.
This is a cleanly filmed short that was obviously a well thought out and planned project. It feels like a super condensed feature film and from my little bit of knowledge of the film there are hopes to turn into something extended in time. I sincerely hope they do because they have a cool concept that is ripe for expansion.
The one piece of the film that caught me a little off guard was the fact that they had a second camera. When I went back through again on a follow up viewing it was visually apparent in scenes leading up to it, but I think it could be easily missed by someone watching. The only other small gripe I had was a little too much of the camera glitching out effect, especially since a lot of times there was almost no reason for it. However, it is a good tool to have to keep the pace going.
Outside of that though again I think everything technically here is strong. The audio mixing is clear, the acting is good throughout, with just a bit of camp sprinkled in for good measure, and while not scary there are some solid wince moments presented. One special mention for me is the work of cinematographer Daniel Grisak, the easy play for a smaller budget production would be to just let the visuals get muddy quickly, however they stay clean even in darkly lit scenes. This is not easy to achieve, and I really must applaud that.
Camping Fun is an easy film to recommend checking out. It comes from a team of folks who obviously have a lot of love for the genre and have a clear vision of a wider story. I hope they get the chance to make this into a full feature and when that time comes, I look forward to sitting down to enjoy this world on a grander scale.
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Cheers!
Daniel Hess
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