CarousHELL

In the grand tradition of zany, low-budget horror-comedy romps, has there ever been a concept this zany? Surely there have been few this low-budget. Surely there have been few this fabulously, unapologetically blunt, forthright, and deliberately overcooked in almost every way. Characters, dialogue, scene writing, narrative, acting, lighting, cinematography, pacing, direction, editing, effects, music, and all else are written and executed with astoundingly insincere bluster, conscious cockamamie baloney that throws all good sense out the window and dares us to hate it. There are dashes in 'CarousHell' of classic slasher vibes with an equine twist (get it? Because unicorn horns are usually depicted as a spiral?), and traces of supernatural horror, but the movie wantonly goes so far off the rails that any fragment of "horror" is relegated to no more than half the runtime. In its place we get extended referential humor, tongue-in-cheek mockery, plainly absurdist situational humor, exaggerated characters and scene writing, preposterous quips/one-liners/otherwise dialogue (including puns, naturally), sight gags, sex jokes - and, why not, gratuitous nudity. And it's a total blast!

For all the self-indulgent excess and bare-faced inauthenticity, however, nothing in 'CarousHell' is sloppy or accidental. Shoestring silliness is exactly what filmmaker Steve Rudzinski does, and there's stupendous wit and intelligence underlying every iota of indecent inanity. The root concept is brazen; the horror elements are secondary in execution and as ingenuine as they could be; the comedy is outrageous and overdone - yet all of it is totally by intent, and delightfully sharp. It's not especially often that a feature makes me laugh this much, but from start to finish I had such a fantastic time watching. Putting aside personal preferences - I completely understand how this won't appeal to everyone - the real criticisms that come to mind are very few. Even for folks like me who love what they see, I think 'CarousHell' struggles a bit at first to find its tone as early scenes establish the characters and scenario and set up the remainder; a title that's already an acquired taste initially comes off even more so. More substantively, some of the humor doesn't actually land; as funny as the film is for the most part, some attempted jokes are too indelicate to work, or border on outright offensive. Even for a picture so ludicrously off the wall, a few instances just don't pan out.

Yet when all is said and done these shortcomings are nothing compared to the riotous entertainment 'CarousHell' has to offer. Much careful thought and hard work went into making this nonsense a reality, and the payoff is tremendous. Why, for as over the top as many of the visual effects are, a particular few examples are unexpectedly great; one can't help but wonder if that's where most of the budget ended up going. Throw in some fun music, spirited and committed performances, and swell looks for each character that seem to have been devised among the contributors themselves, and this is just such a joy. I had mixed expectations from the outset, not just on the basis of this title alone but also formed from (limited) prior experience with Rudzinski's films (not all are equal), and they have been handily blown away. This will hardly be a feature that appeals to genre purists or broad audiences, yet for those open to all the wide, weird, wild possibilities that cinema has to offer, I think 'CarousHell' is marvelously enjoyable and well worth a mere 70 minutes of our time!

Upset about being a child's carousel unicorn, a special figure breaks out of his bondage and sets out to seek revenge on the kid who angered him where he finally tracks him down at a party with his sister and her friends forcing him to take them out to get to him and relying on a special hunter to stop the rampage.

On the whole, this was a pretty solid cheesy genre effort. Among the better elements here is the fact that this one just goes all-in on the ludicrous nature and premise that's being utilized here. From the unicorns' remarks about the situation and his lifestyle working at the carnival directly to the camera, this one gives off a goofy atmosphere quite early on and tends to set an example of what's in store. That this carries on into the rest of of the film where the ludicrous nature of a talking carousel creation wandering around talking to everyone it comes across while not realizing what's going on until it's too late or the utterly wacky storyline about the mascot from the amusement park coming after him to stop the rampage makes for all sorts of cheesy, silly fun here. That the attacks are carried over with an actual stiff, practical horse-prop manipulated and filmed to appear as though it were a real being just adds to the goofiness present here. As well, there's plenty to like here about the antics of the killer creature out in the wilds which has a lot of outrageous gore gags and stalking to it. The idea of taking out the workers around the carnival and the couple on their date leading up to the assault on the party are great fun full of goofy puns and outrageous situations involving the creature performing the over-the-top actions. Once at the party, the idea of it going through the bestiality role with the admirer and turning that into a fun killing spree stalking through the various guests in fine form, as the confrontations in the living room, out in the kitchen and involving the mascot hunting it down at the end tend to go hand-in-hand with the tone and atmosphere created here. With the great gore involved in the multitude of kills, plenty of over-the-top comedy, and the right air of seriousness involved, these hold the film up quite well over its minor aspects. There isn't a whole lot to dislike with this one. Among the few issues is a rightly-acknowledged part in the first half where the unicorns' lines become repetitive and not that funny. Being variations on the same thing for every kill it commits, it would've been tiresome and annoying to keep going with the same setup and punchline which is then rightly called out before it gets to that point with a clever twist about doing so which saves it somewhat even though it still comes off irritating beforehand. As well, there's the ludicrous nature of what's going on, from a talking carnival carousel unicorn that doesn't have much in the way of explanation for how it's still alive or how it finds the kid at the party when it just seems to be going through the community taking them out as it comes across them that might be troublesome which goes hand-in-hand with the low-budget nature and outrageousness of the premise for some to handle. These are the only real issues here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and a scene of consensual bestiality.

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.

This is hilarious. Although I'm sure a lot won't like it, but man I laughed.

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