CAMPING TRIP
Directed by: Demien and Leonardo Fuica
Starring: Leonardo Fuica, Caitlin Cameron, Alex Gravenstein, Hanna Forest Briand
In the midst of the first COVID lockdown, two couples decide to go on a camping trip into the middle of a national forest, miles from anyone. However, they are not as isolated as they thought and a botched deal between criminals nearby puts their lives in peril…
The film starts with our two couples getting ready for their trip - Enzo, Polly, Ace and Coco meet up at Enzo's house in a modern suburban cul de sac. We get a reminder of what Lockdown was like when it turns out Enzo had been fined because his neighbour had informed on him over some supposed infraction of the lockdown rules. We also learn that both the guys are facing financial difficulties which will colour decisions later in the film.
One of the film's nice visual touches comes when the four start to unload their camping equipment including their canoe. This is done as an overlapping montage, so we get a flavour of the whole endeavour rather than having to sit through the whole thing.
The film makes good use of its stunning location, with a lot of good drone footage of the lake and some nice over-head shots to give the visuals some more dynamism. We get a good sense of scale of the place and how remote the foursome are.
The script knows exactly when to start its thriller element, bringing in the character of Doc (Ben Pelletier) who is acting shifty and seemingly spying on the campers. At first you have no idea how this storyline is going to pan out and the film keeps its cards close to its chest, until he meets up with a couple of goons down by the lake. However this plot thread runs in parallel with the campers and the two do not intersect until a good while into the film.
CAMPING TRIP has two standout set-pieces. The first is when the goons attack the campers and they fight back. This is set at night and captured in slow motion with some fluid camera movements. It’s a great little scene. The other is when greed overcomes love and friendship and things boil over. This is shot differently to the earlier conflict with certain events happening out of frame but again, the fluid motion of the camera makes it pretty unique.
The biggest issue for Camping Trip is its running time. For a film this slight of story, its at least 20 minutes too long and there are times when things do drag on. The other issue is the characters don't really have a lot to do except hangout and enjoy their camping trip for a lot of the film while the thriller plot starts to gear up to the point where the campers discover the body. Even then, the film doesn't give them much to do.
The film treats its four leads as more-or-less equals. No one gets any more screentime than anyone else and it is impossible to know who if any will likely survive the film. This is great, but it does make it difficult to actually care for any of the characters either.
THE VERDICT
Camping Trip has an interesting hook - an escape from Lockdown, only to find something more dangerous in the wilderness. There are some strong visual choices and overall the film has a striking, polished look to it. However the run-time is flabby and despite all the time we spend with the characters its difficult to care who survives or doesn't.