Things considered camp are often subversive in their interpretation of beauty and good taste. Thus, camp movies draw on exaggeration and excess, typically undermining cinematic qualities deemed high-brow and revelling in outrageousness, silliness and theatricality.

In her 1964 essay 'Notes on “Camp"', Susan Sontag listed the attributes of the camp aesthetic, defining camp in simple and enduring terms: "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration", "the spirit of extravagance", and "too much".

Camp is inspired by real stories and events. Camp shares the story of Eli a child who has been badly abused and is in foster care. His father is incarcerated and his mother is dead. Eli attends a camp for foster kids for one week.

Camp is a 2003 American musical comedy drama film written and directed by Todd Graff about an upstate New York performing arts summer camp. The film is based on Graff's own experiences at a similar camp called Stagedoor Manor, where many scenes of the film were filmed.