HAPPY CAMP – The Review

I am reminded of growing up in the late-80s, watching Unsolved Mysteries on prime-time television. Intrigued by commercials for Time Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown, an encyclopedic series of books about everything supernatural, extraterrestrial and any other unproven or unexplained phenomena, I recall begging my parents to buy me the books about alien abductions, Stonehenge, and mythical creatures that live in our backyards. Sadly, they never did, but I did manage to find the random torn and battered volume available at the local library.

HAPPY CAMP, directed by first-timer Josh Anthony, stirs these nostalgic memories of an era defined by the weird, abstract and unusual. The film is about a man named Michael, played by Michael Barbuto, who returns to his small home town 20 years after his brother went missing as a child. Michael is accompanied by his girlfriend Anne, played by Anne Taylor, and two friends named Teddy (Teddy Gilmore) and Josh, played by writer-director Josh Anthony). Anne wants to shoot a documentary about Michael and the mysterious disappearance of his brother twenty years ago, so the four of them hop into a massive old RV and road trip into the remote wilderness town of Happy Camp, California.

This group of relatively happy young adults quickly discover they are about as welcome in Happy Camp by the locals as they are aware of what they are soon to discover about the disappearance of Michael’s brother. In fact, Michael’s brother is only one of over 600 people who have gone missing from Happy Camp, many of them “flat landers” visiting from out-of-town. Anne and her rag-tag crew of documentary filmmakers set out with their handheld camera, asking colorful backwoods local characters about the disappearances, getting colorful backwoods responses, all of which are either typically vague or embarrassingly obvious in their exposition.

Herein lies the primary flaw and underlying reason for the film’s failure to succeed. Writing. HAPPY CAMP is constructed on the premise of being an actual documentary being shot, but never finished by the original filmmakers. Rather, this is the footage they did obtain, compiled after the fact by someone who happened to find the footage left behind by the filmmakers. In other words, this is yet another entry into the “found footage” genre of horror/thriller filmmaking that has become so popular since the stellar box office success of THE BLAIR WITH PROJECT (1999) opened this fickle can of worms for movie audiences.

I have nothing against the found footage genre. There are many creatively successful films that have experimented with this style of storytelling, such as the REC (2007) franchise, and a few have even been major box office hits, such as CLOVERFIELD (2008). However, just like any genre, there needs to be a compelling story behind the film for it to engage its audience and, unfortunately, HAPPY CAMP does not deliver. The concept is there, in its essence, and the film even has a fairly commendable production value for what appears to be a relatively low-budget endeavor, but the writers make two fundamental errors. First, the film is beyond predictable. I would argue that anyone who hasn’t figured out the entire premise of HAPPY CAMP within the first 15-20 minutes should avoid recommendations to refill the blinker fluid in their car. Everything is laid on the table, all the cards are shown and nothing — I do mean nothing — is left to the viewer’s imagination. There is an effort to disguise the mystery and protect the film’s secret, but the veil is left so thin by the characters’ dialogue that it might as well be made of plastic wrap.

HAPPY CAMP, roughly broken down into its simplest parts, is 33% setup, 33% pointless arguing and excessive use of the F-bomb while aimlessly chasing one another or running from and/or towards strange noises, and 33% actual story progression and conclusion, in that order. The remaining 1% got lost somewhere on the cutting room floor. Surprisingly, the third act of the film (being the ending) is the best and most promising part of the film. Despite so much being given away in the film’s dialogue, the filmmakers manage to hold back and not reveal too much of the [fill in the blank] that is the cause for all the missing people. What? Just because the film gives away its own ending, doesn’t mean I’m going to do the same. With that said, the special effects are, by far, not the worst I’ve ever seen on film.

Overall, the film is worth a good time late night viewing with friends of a similar sense of humor and a few beers. Laughter will ensue, not by intention, but the film does have its merit. HAPPY CAMP is not a painful movie to watch. I can see the film possibly garnering a cult following, like Tommy Wiseau’s THE ROOM (2003) or James Nguyen’s BIRDEMIC (2010), but with a decidedly higher production value. I would not hesitate to compare the film to those of Uwe Boll, in that it strives to accomplish something bigger then itself, but just doesn’t have the inherent substance to reach its intended goal.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Available nationwide On Demand and on iTunes, Time Warner, ComCast and DirecTV, among other platforms on Tuesday, March 25th, 2014.