Carver

Based on true events, Carver tells the tale of five friends on a short camping trip in the mountain town of Halcyon Ridge. When they take a small detour to an abandoned farm owned by the Carver family, they fumble onto a horror film they think is only a movie. As they explore their eerie surroundings, they discover the truth behind the film and the Carver family. They begin to open doors that should never have been opened. Soon, it becomes a matter of life imitating art and art imitating death. Witness one of the most terrifying killing sprees ever to splash on screen. As you scream and cringe, you'll wonder what the Carvers could possibly do next...

This film has a number of similarities with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, plus some of the more gruesome elements of Saw and Hostel.

A group of people in their twenties are on a camping holiday in the American backwoods.

They agree to do some work for somebody and find a few reels of film and a projector in a barn.

They watch the films, which feature some disturbing images from what they assume are home-made horror movies.

The films look pretty realistic for home-made horror movies.

Nearby lives a large, demented, psychopath who happens to appear in the aforementioned films.

Need I say more?

Brutal. Scary. Filled with tension.

I rarely use those words to describe a movie, especially one that's Straight-to-Video, but they're fitting here. I rented the Unrated *grisly edition* from Netflix. Boy was I in for a surprise.

The premise is rather typical: A group of campers meets up with some nasty company in the woods. But it's the movie's delivery that's not so typical. This film was extremely gruesome. Some of the violence was so realistic and so graphic, that I had to turn my head away from the screen at times. I'm not really a huge fan of scenes of torture, but if they're well done, I can appreciate them. I think the level of brutality in Carver blows both Hostel films away by far.

The dialog was snappy and fresh. The acting was passable. I did however, think the cheap/grainy camera used to film the movie was a bit of a distraction. It looked really cheap. This movie could have been excellent on a bigger budget.

If you like movies like Wolf Creek, Hostel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Wrong Turn -- and if you can appreciate independent horror made on a low budget -- you'll really love this.

This type of movies is getting old, I mean real old. Every movie is the same, they don't even add new things, it's just the same recipe over and over.

This one is no exception, the movie is bad, the plot is the same, the actors are bad, the image is bad. The only thing positive in this movie is that is violent, everything else is bad.

And is it my imagination or the kids in this movie are getting dumber (if that was possible)?

Have you seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre? House of 1000 Corpses? The Devil's Rejects? The Hills Have Eyes? etc etc? Then don't watch this one, it's the same.

If you haven't seen any of the above, pick one of them so you don't have to watch this one.

I am a fan of anything horror so I gave this DTV torture/slasher a try. Its not bad, the acting is up and down and across the map, as one would expect.

The movie had a good pace and decent direction, shockingly for a low budget. The film production however wasn't too bad.

The real highlight here however, and the reason to watch it to begin with is the gore. Where it builds slowly, when we get there this one is strong stuff. Not the most realistic gore by any means, but combined with some rather strong editing, a twisted mentality, it really hits all the right buttons.

Not sure if there is an Unrated version or not. I watched a screener. I will say this though, the screener I watched would never get the R. It was much harder a rating than the R rating would ever allow, which is all good. And there is one scene in particular, that will have you wince and groan. I am not gonna spoil it.

So if you're looking for a low budget, DTV horror film, you can do better than this, and certainly worse. I give it a 7 because it kept me entertained and the violence quotient alone put it past a 5 or 6 which is what I would have given it if it was watered down like most main stream horror films. Give it a try.