CarousHELL

I actually watched CarousHELL 3 first because I am a fan of a couple of members of the cast. I wasn't sure what to think of it, so I decided to watch the first movie to get a better understanding of things.

Tired of being abused and mistreated by children, a carousel unicorn awakens and leaves the ride to look for the child who took him to his limit.

CarousHELL is a unique mix of horror and humor. It delivers the goods in both departments, as well as having some cool gory scenes.

Duke the unicorn crashes a house party and goes on a killing spree to get to the child that set him off.

I wasn't sure if I would like this, but it was pretty good.

The cast is relatively unknown. Haley J. Madison is the only cast member that I'm familiar with.

Definitely low budget. Some good thought out ideas for scenes but overall bad acting and effects. Not much else to say

Arguably a unique, offbeat and different type of film. Caroushell is a low budget independent film that mixes supernatural horror, teen humor and goofy silly comedy in one.

The effects aren't great especially that of a talking toy caroushell. We never actually see it moving and it all doesn't exactly make sense (a unicorn caroushell coming to life talking). What is bizarre is at first we didn't know the caroushell was talking aloud, as it seemed like it was speaking his thoughts in his head.

The acting is very amateurish and many characters overreact (especially those at the party scene). There is a funny explicit scene (39:20) with one character and the caroushell showing skin, which was well shot and showed good lighting.

This movie is relatively short in runtime and it is quite unpredictable which does make things more watchable. Overall this is just slightly cheesy to truly be something more than what it is. Perhaps watching the sequels may change the rating of this original.

After being ridden by obnoxious child Lunchbox (Teague Shaw), sentient carousel unicorn Duke (voiced by Steve Rimpici) loses his cool and embarks on a bloody rampage. Can amusement park mascot Cowboy Cool (Frank Sidebottom's relation from across the pond?) save the day?

Sounds dumb, eh? And it is. Very, very dumb. And writer/director Steve Rudzinski clearly knows this. He doesn't allow dreadful acting and terrible humour stop him from committing his crazy vision to digital video. He doesn't let a budget amounting to little more than most films' toilet paper allowance to stop the fun. And I don't believe he gives two hoots what amateur reviewers like me think of the results. He's having fun with his fellow film-makers and that's all that matters to Steve.

I watched just to see how Rudzinski would bring his unicorn to life. The short answer is 'he doesn't', the thing remaining inanimate the whole time. I guess that's part of the joke. Sadly, the sheer stupidity of the basic premise can only go so far, and the rest of the film, which focuses on a group of friends having a party, unaware that the gaily-painted wooden unicorn poses a threat, is pretty tiresome, comedy not exactly being Rudzinski's forte. The humour is grating and the characters -- Preston (Chris Proud), a cut-rate Stifler wannabe; Lunchbox's social-media obsessed sister Laurie (Sé Marie); an incestuous Canadian brother and sister; and pizza delivery guy Joe (Rudzinski himself), who would rather be paid than have sex with Laurie -- are annoying.

The film is at its most fun when it's being gloriously trashy, the best bits being the laughably OTT kills and a spot of brief but welcome nudity: I particularly enjoyed the part where a guy gets the top of his head knocked off by a well-aimed unicorn kick, the juicy throat ripping, the melting head scene, and indie horror cutie Haley Madison, as unicorn obsessed Sarah, taking off her top to have sex with Duke. I wish that Rudzinski had given us more gore and T&A and less comedy; that said, I did giggle at the sight of the killer unicorn successfully disguising itself as a lamp.

My rating: 3/10. Not a very high score, I grant you, but that still makes it my second favourite killer unicorn film after The Cabin In The Woods.

I've watched this movie a year ago. Some people should say this movie is second to none, or should I say second to RUN? When I watched that stupid Unicorn come "alive", my excitement flew south for the winter. This was an extremely cheesy movie. I'd rather watch Dora the Explorer, and I'm a boy! The movie makes no sense, and the acting was just downright awful. I'd give this movie ZERO stars if I could, but alas, I cannot. Seriously, unless you like really cheesy movies, this one is not for you.