Le charpentier

This movie is a classic horror movie in Norway. It's intensely scary yet sensitive. With the ever so talented Wing Hauser as the crazed carpenter, though it's special effects are rather outdated. But it's complex plot and intensely scary music more than makes up for it.

They just don't make them like this anymore. An instant classic.

10 out of 10. BRAVO

Anybody going into this movie hoping for a gory slasher movie about a psycho carpenter who uses his sharp tools to make a bloody mess of his victims is going to be disappointed. This Canadian filmed B-movie is slow and lame, the kills are weak, it is as much a drama as it is a horror movie. Wings Hauser gives an interesting performance as the title role, the ghost of a polite mass murderer, but that, along with a bit of sex, is not enough. I have this on UK VHS, great cover artwork and I like the plot, sadly the end product was not very well polished. Could and should have been better.

In THE CARPENTER, a woman named Alice (Lynne Adams) moves into a new home with her idiot husband, Martin (Pierre Lenoir). Alice has mental issues, including delusional thinking. The rural house needs a lot of repairs, and one night Alice meets the titular artisan (Wings Hauser) working late in the basement. Is he part of the work crew, or... ??

When Alice finds herself in a bad spot with one of the workmen, the mystery man intervenes in grisly fashion. Hmmm, Martin had better watch his P's and Q's, or he may just wind up "remodeled" himself! Why, he could have a "splitting" headache!

This movie is an insanely ghoulish, tragic love story, perfect for Wings Hauser fans, since he's great in it!...

Wouldn't it be so much cooler if John Carpenter had directed this movie? Then the box of the VHS could loudly announce "John Carpenter's … The Carpenter"! And also, it probably would have been a much better film if John directed it… "The Carpenter" is a rather weak and laughable 80's slasher movie that desperately tries to add in some deeper psychological themes, but fails. It centers on a beautiful, thirty-something housewife that just got released from a period in a mental institution because she cut up her husband's business suits for no apparent reason. They move into a new countryside house that still needs a lot of renovation and Alice stays indoors whilst her husband cheats on her with a hot blond chick. Meanwhile Alice falls in love with the reincarnation of carpenter Ed (portrayed by 80's stud Wings Hauser). Ed is an old-fashioned workaholic who died in the electric chair 40 years earlier after he went a little berserk and killed some people that didn't allow him to finish his work. Together, Alice and Ed butcher a couple of lazy handymen and talk about dancing. How adorable! It's a pretty ridiculous film overall, with too much talking and only a couple of demented murder scenes to make up for it. The killings are similar to the ones in the 'video-nasty' cult classic "The Toolbox Murders" (a nail gun, a bench vice…) but not nearly as gross or memorable. I always thought Wings Hauser is a bit of an idiot and didn't really like him in this role, neither. His tedious speeches about how "handy-work is holy" are implausible and not exactly terrifying. The climax is just plain retarded.

The Carpenter would not appear to be a very well liked film, and it's really not difficult to see why. It seems that certain occupations lend themselves to horror; while dentistry, for example, has obvious horror themes that can spring from it, all carpentry has is the idea of someone murdering people with his tools, this idea has been used many times before and generally isn't all that interesting anyway. The fact that the plot here focuses on a dead carpenter who has come back for revenge doesn't really help since that idea is also massively overused. The plot is also rather boring in the way it plays out. However, I do have to say, in spite of all that I've already said, that The Carpenter isn't a film without any merits at all. Wings Hauser is good in the title role, and the scenes that see him taking some revenge on various people that he doesn't like are generally quite well done. The way he yacks on about 'the working man' etc can be a little dreary, but the delivery is good and Hauser makes for an effective villain. Overall, however, I have to say that The Carpenter is not a great film and there's not enough about it for me to recommend it.