Closed for the Season

Closed for the Season aka Carnival of Fear offers something that seems more like a feverdream, a stream of consciousness excursion into fear that gets rather muddled in the second and third acts. Director Jay Woelfel has to be given credit for trying to create an alternate universe where fear and regret exist tangibly and haunt the lives of the characters. Yes, it's a very slow burn, but it's fascinating. Woelfel has helmed many films, mostly in the horror and action genres, so it's interesting to see this approach. It's also understandable that so many reviewers would hate this movie--it's not a "gotcha" horror movie. Other reviewers have compared it to "Malatesta's Carnival of Blood", which has a very dreamlike, metaphysical feel to it. In some ways, it also resembles Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls", although that film has a very clear-cut rationale that is revealed at the end. Both films are exceptional in their use of cinematography to set an eerie mood. The whole idea of a closed amusement park being a receptacle for the negative energy produced by human suffering is a great metaphor, and Woelfel tries to layer on other ideas as well, but it seems like too many metaphysical concepts spoil the broth. If you like your horror with a lot of esoteric philosophical concepts drenched in atmosphere, then this one might be for you.

I have doubt's whether Closed for the Season is a deliberate effort in magical realism rather than the usual kind of low budget horror film dissonance that comes from plot holes and poor technical quality, but that's all i have. The goal for the film makers, as illusive as it is, appears to be creating a constant sense of disorientation and not much else. Whether that goal is achieved or not is not for me to say. I'm not confident even on what the feat is, let alone if it was defeated.

Reviewing the film first on Youtube, i was ok to dismiss Closed for the Season as pretentious hipster crap. But that was until i recently rewatched Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973), a film with striking similarities to Closed for the Season that i had a good time with. Not wanting to keep double standards based on vintage, i thought i'd revise my opinion. I have also come across director Woelfel's highly ambitious and much more engaging Beyond Dream's Door, which, above everything else, made me realise that i might not do enough research.

Because with watching these two films, i get a better idea of what Season was going for. That is was made by a man who spent the majority of the 80s trying to get his passion project off the ground and not by grad trust funders with no respect for the horror genre. And my main problem with Season was issues revolving around sincerity. But the fact that i considered the work of a 20+ year vet to be on the level of fresh faced amateurs still backs up another point i made, which is Season failing to engage in it's sound and images.

Malatesta was an experimental short expanded to feature length, set in a carnival, with impoverished production values and under-lit cinematography. But unlike Season, it was made by a guy who was a documentarian as well as an experimental film maker. Even if the images were poorly defined, they were numerous and creatively framed. Season's cinematography overall is both flat as well as dark. Malatesta also definitely had stronger continuity in both it's themes and tone, which helped retain engagement.

But Closed for the Season, like Malatesta, does feature solid art design and atmosphere throughout. Unlike Malatesta, or Beyond Dream's Door, the acting is poor as well as the pacing. Scenes are drawn out way too long and your mileage will vary. Kudos for still being a unique horror film amongst its contemporaries. It's intentionally confusing instead of just being confusing through ineptness. It's intentionally dream-like and surreal, but has very little to say. Something about carny culture dying or something. Whatever the point was, it wasn't worth bringing up it seems because the whole film comes off as a random bunch of scenes that have very little effect. For the life of me, I could not find a reason to care after twenty minutes. It all just felt like pretentious nonsense.

Closed for the Season is indeed one of the most unique horror films I've seen from the 2010s and time may be kind. If you are really that desperate to see something that is south of the Asylum, then I would recommend Closed for the Season as it does try something new. Jay Woelful is obviously dealing with resources that appear to be even more disparate than he was in '89 in his debut feature and i can appreciate how he has retained his esoteric ambitions. But the film has no point and it doesn't have enough spectacle to inspire the levels of charity in the audience that this film's indulgences would require.

A young woman and a man (Aimee Brooks and Damian Maffei) find themselves stuck at Chippewa Lake Park that's been closed for decades, but terrorizes them with haunting memories.

"Closed for the Season" (2010) was written, scored and directed by Jay Woelfel at the cost of only $250,000. I saw his previous full-length movie, "Ghost Lake," from six years earlier, which cost way less, $110,000, and I wanted to see what he could do with over twice the budget. Well, this is noticeably better on a technical level, and is impressive from that angle, but he omitted the most important part, a compelling story.

I was interested in seeing it because you can't beat the carnival atmosphere. And the dilapidated location makes it all the better, sort of like "Scream Park" that came out two years later and was shot in northwest Pennsylvania's Conneaut Lake Park. That flick is worth seeing since it has a coherent story that holds your interest. Not so here, unhappily.

Yet if you have a penchant for artsy indies or are interested in what Chippewa Lake Park looks like after being closed for 31 years, when shooting was done in 2009, you'll find something to appreciate. It was a happening place in the Roaring 20s.

The film's overlong at 1 hour, 54 minutes, and was shot at Chippewa Lake Park, which is located 27 miles west of Akron and 5 miles northwest of Seville.

GRADE: C-/D+

What were these folks thinking when they cobbled together a full two hours of two bad actors running around an abandoned fairground being harassed by an old man portraying some sort of ghost-carny? They must have been making this one up as they went along, because it starts off confusing, settles into mediocrity, then tries to give you some explanation if you're still awake by the end of it.

This long, boring, film reminds of that old eighties film Spookies. Only worse. Yep, this film is worse that Spookies.

I'd imagine they were aiming for some sort of vibe like The Beyond, where the whole film plays out like a surreal nightmare that makes little sense, but is ultimately rewarding.

In fact, just watch that instead.

Not the worst horror film I've ever seen but not for lack of trying. Being a long-time fan of horror movies as well as circus and carnival thrillers, I was looking forward to enjoying a feature combining the best of both worlds minus perhaps the extreme surrealism of Alex de la Iglesia's "The Last Circus". This one, unfortunately, failed to deliver at any level. Had I been shackled before the screen, I would have seriously considered chewing off a leg to escape the very real horror of a complete and utter waste of film stock. Here's hoping the wonderfully spooky atmosphere of Chippewa Lake Park will one day serve as locale for a well-executed and memorable fright film. Closed for the Season? Closed for a reason.