the audience applauded

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Mickey Keating is a director worth checking out. His films aren't perfect, peppered with self-indulgent dollops of his signature flash-out-of-the-darkness sequences that often remind us that less is more. While Carnage Park ranks with his best work, there are a few scenes shot in near or total darkness that go on for too long in a misfired attempt to build suspense. When used late in his films the endings sometimes fizzle, rendering his climax a bit anti-climactic.Despite this editorial shortcoming, Keating ranks among the best young directors working today. His casting choices are superb as is his work with the actors. Ashley Bell fans will be delighted with her performance in Carnage Park which showcases her range as an actress and her girl next door sex appeal. I could name every other actor as well, suffice it to say they all give great performances.Action, make-up efx, cinematography are all topnotch. The editing is generally good, deftly handling a story that's disjointed but cohesive, the only questionable edits being the overly long dark sequences that really solely on the soundtrack to propel them.The soundtrack will either thrill you or turn you off, depending on how open you are to off- the-wall soundscapes, which include a few Vietnamese songs that are too bizarre by Western commercial standards to ignore. I loved it, but you may not. Otherwise the sound mixing and the score is excellent.If you enjoyed QT's Pulp Fiction or RZ's Devil's Rejects you'll probably dig this as well.

Around 20 minutes from the end I checked how long left and more or less kept checking how long left until this awful film came to an end, I thought we had an early release but then realised the screen had gone black for no apparent reason, maybe we were suppose to be scared at what we could not see, sometimes it is better to leave the monster reveal near the end.. The only good thing about the movie was it only lasted 77 minutes. So where do we start, we have a half baked back story for the kidnapped girl, I knew we were in trouble when 50% of the cast died in the first ten minutes, we had an attempt at a Tarantino cartoon type film, a hill's have eyes type etc, at times it was like someone who got a book of quotations for Xmas and uses quotes every other sentence, the director must have been giddy with all the nods to various other films. We had awful irritating music, insipid acting, a non existent script, a boring plot and some of the worst cinematography I have seen in a long while, long lingering sweeping views of chem trails in an appalling sepia nod to the 70's style. I have finally had it with horror films, this was the straw that broke the camels back. I know it is a harsh comparison but look at Hitchcock's 'The Birds' how the film unfolds building the tension, each scene redone until it was perfect and this, I would be stunned if any scene was redone, awful, terrible film.

I'm gonna rate it a 9.Pros:1)Good use of gore 2)good storytelling (mostly) 3)Good character development 4)Good surprisesCons:1)Stupid and weird at times and maybe not in a good way 2)Parts of movie seem long and pointlessThe movie was pretty good fun and awesome scenery and a good use of a script and story. I liked the characters and found myself enjoying it and having fun mostly but some stuff just seems unnecessary drawn out and not interesting but for the most part it is a good ride and I love independent films that can give us a good ride so for that it gets a 9. It would have gotten 10 but I felt there was a little room for it to be better. This movie probably would have done well with cutting a little more out of it.This movie is dark and gruesome. Don't watch if you can't handle some grizzly surprises. Maybe better if you can see the humor in dark films.

"Brothers burn faster when they're burning together." The only positive thing about this film was Pat Healy as the crazy ex-marine Wyatt Moss, who set up his own personal amusement park somewhere in the bone-dry desert in California where he lures lost backpackers and hunts them down as a real psychotic hunter. He gratefully uses his talent as a sniper during these chases. The few times he speaks in this movie, show that he's ready for the nuthouse. Especially the dialogue with his brother, Sheriff Moss (Alan Ruck), is a memorable moment with that intonation and those facial expressions. Wyatt gave me the chills here, acting as a real psychopath. Just because of this scene, I'm planning to watch some more films with Healy playing in it.I also thought that the sometimes eerie soundtrack and sound clips reverberating from the megaphones weren't so bad. They emphasized the insane mind of Wyatt. But otherwise this was a meaningless crime film, starring a madman fascinated by religion, who has his own safari park where victims try to survive. Thus a typical survival film. The last victim here is Vivian (Ashley Bell). She was kidnapped by two layabouts who tried to rob a bank and ended up in Carnage Park. It isn't very original and to be honest, there isn't happening that much essentially. It's during her stumbling flight that Vivian discovers other victims. And surely you can expect some fragments that are similar to those in other famous horror movies.The thing that amazes me every time, is the stupidity of the main character. When you take matters into your own hand, make damn sure you do it thoroughly. Such a madman wouldn't get a second chance with me. But no, Wyatt with his gas mask (which reminded me of a CD cover from "Therapy?") resurfaces once again and the cat and mouse game restarts. And a cat could well have an advantage in this game, because it was largely pitch dark in this film. Several times I checked if the power went down, because in the end I couldn't see Jack sh*t most of the time. Also, the attempt to emulate the feel of a 70's movie wasn't really successful.Actually, you can compare this with Mickey Keating's previous creation "Pod". Also, a so-called horror with potential. Good intentions are clearly present and there are also some positive aspects can be seen, but ultimately it's all vague and disappointing. Even downright violence and bloody fragments can't prevent it's becoming pretty boring and tedious halfway. Not to mention the announcement that this film is based once again on true facts. That won't make it an exciting movie, unfortunately.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT