When a heist for a secret device goes awry, Noah (Ethan Drew) is abandoned by his crew, and he has to make a run for it to catch the last bus to Camp Deer Run or else face time in juvenile detention.  He is already not thrilled at having to be at camp and bristles against Oliver (Tyler Kowalski), his dorky bunk mate, and Jake (Corbin Bleu), a popular counselor who has taken an interest in trying to break through to him.  After Noah discovers that the piece of tech he lifted is still in his possession, it is not long until his ex-partners, Charlie (Josh Inocalla) and Willis (Joshua Childs), realize that they have come up empty handed and infiltrate the camp to steal back the device.  It is easier said than done as the grumpy Ranger Falco (Christopher Lloyd) does not take kindly to strangers on his property, and Noah has also gained the support of the other campers who help rig the property with booby traps to protect their summertime retreat. 

Sean Olson directs Camp Hideout, a 100-minute juvenile comedy written by Kat Olson, C. Neil Davenport, and Dave DeBorde that received a limited theatrical run from Roadside Attractions.  With a great poster and a log line that sounds like an old-school throwback comedy about kids getting up to antics away from their parents at summer camp instead becomes a trope-ridden fiasco that is geared far too young to really break into any audience sector because the pre-teen audience who it feels this film is trying to reach given its casting would have 0 patience to deal with the playful and elementary tone the film adopts and it offers nothing of value for the older crowd.  It suffers from a major identity crisis which holds the cast back from really being able to form actual characters, arcs, and relationships with each other, and for audiences leaves them confused at best and bored at worst.  

Drew is at the center of the film in an almost impossible role to manage through no real fault of his own. The 20-year-old actor is saddled with the angst of a teenager and the decision-making skills of a 12-year-old. While it is not uncommon for actors in these kinds of films to play younger to avoid strict child labor laws on set, and while Drew can certainly look the age more so than some actors playing high schoolers on whatever the hit CW show of the season is, Noah as a character is written so uncharismaticly that the actor struggles to break through and keep us invested. It is not a problem that is exclusive to Noah, rather it is a systemic problem across the entire script that none of these characters have any back story about them or real goals of the future. They simply exist in the here and now and because of that, their decision making can be boiled down to one of sheer survival, but not in an exciting sense, simply because they have no other arc to follow other than showing up in the next scene. This is exemplified in the “magic” technology that sets the whole chase into motion, it simply exists as a motivation to trot out when things get slow. Modeled off of the Nintendo Switch console so that it can get mixed up with Noah’s actual gaming console, there is little reason why it is so important other than it just is. We get some vague answers in the final scene that set up an unlikely sequel, but the script does not treat this MacGuffin with the sense of importance that it needs to penetrate through to audience’s curiosity. 

As for the overall story, Camp Hideout is not a trailblazer in the genre, and it does not have to be, but that it instead opts to be the loosest collection of tired themes and tropes is still disappointing. The premise sounds like Home Alone (1990) transported to a summer camp setting and incorporating all of the unique locations that the outdoor setting provides; trails, lakes, treehouses, and pavilions. Camp Hideout is far less fun than the Chris Columbus classic, and while you can forgive some of the lighter themes and comedy when looking at camp movies – which tend to be a little more on the wild and raunchy side of things – Home Alone shares a PG rating with Olson’s latest so there is proof of concept already that this could have been something fun and engaging. In the grand finale when Charlie and Willis are chasing the campers across the property, there are some interesting setups, but the editing is so slow that it fails to capitalize on that inertia to go out with a bang and turns what could be a true farce to top off the whole film into a weighed down slog.  

In a strictly narrative sense, the script gets so lost in what it is trying to be, at times a tale about friendship, other times a Disney Channel action movie, and also peppered throughout the framework of a religious film, too. None of these threads are ever truly developed, though, almost as if all three writers were given the prompt, and their output was then stitched together into something almost resembling a feature-length script. Its lack of commitment to any of its interests makes it hard for audiences to latch on to any of the aspects of the film because nothing is truly developed any further than the setup of these ideas. Looking past the fact that the campers all of a sudden adore Noah even though he has been nothing but a moody brat to all of them, Olson also bypasses the opportunity to show the campers having real fun interacting with each other across the aisle as they lay their traps for Charlie and Willis. 

Additionally confusing, when you take away the cartoon violence at the end of the film that is clearly played up for laughs Camp Hideout also takes on a very strange relationship to safety. Because it is geared so young and set in what we are made to believe to be a well-run camp setting, the film must take on the responsibility of setting a good example for kids; something it clearly does not realize and therefore stumbles. While it does show the kids in life vests while swimming in the lake, during the paintball session there are multiple headshots taken, and while safety gear is being worn, it is odd that the counselors had not set up this rather common practice ground rule.  There is also a major food fight that breaks out over lunch, and in today’s day and age, it feels dated and incredibly irresponsible to show on screen given the prevalence of food insecurity.   

Camp Hideout really betrays its promise to be a fun-filled riotous comedy, and even when meeting the film at its level, it has such a sheer disregard for the intelligence of its young audiences as it peddles in the laziest of jokes and halfhearted embracing of tropes. While picking apart continuity errors is not true analysis, when a scene resolves with Noah splitting up from the group to return to the cabin to fetch his backpack, and the very next scene the group is back together in another part of camp and Noah is still without his backpack, it becomes unavoidable. If there was to be a large span of time passed between the two scenes, the editing does not imply that, rather they are read to be rather seamless, and this is just one of the many glaring instances of narrative disconnect that make Camp Hideout so impenetrable. It feels disingenuous to tear down a small film from an original idea – the inaugural effort of the crowd-funded studio Called Higher Productions – but when so little attention was given to basic tenants of storytelling, editing, and production, it is not tearing down a small film for having a small budget, but rather a plea for filmmakers to respect their audience, even the youngest in the crowd. If filmmaking is going to continue, it needs to inspire a new generation, but even without the hyperbolic existentialism, kids deserve better than what this film has to offer.