CarousHell (2016)

This is another independent movie that I picked up at Grossfest. This one is from the cool cats from Silver Spotlight Films and boasts one of the strangest and hilarious premises that I’ve seen in an indy genre flick.

Our main character is Duke. He has a rough job working at a small amusement park. He has to put up with annoying little kids and is generally treated like crap every day. Finally, he cracks and starts to kill everyone that crosses his path as he looks for the kid that pushed him too far. Did I mention that Duke is a carousel unicorn? We get to see him dispatch characters until tracking down the kid, Lunchbox, and his hot sister at a party. That presents Duke with both the dilemma of how to sneak into the party and provides him with a lot more victims. Good times ensue.

You need to know right up front that this is a comedy. Not everyone would take the plot of a carousel unicorn coming to life as a joke, but you really should. Horror fans take themselves way too seriously. Now that we understand that this one is being played for laughs comes the big question. Is CarousHell funny? Hell yes, it is! First of all, there is Duke. He cracks wise all thru the movie making jokes about the killings. I won’t spoil the funny one-liners here in the review, but they are good. The writers clearly spent a lot of time on the script making sure that they squeezed as many clever jokes in as possible. Most all of them land and that alone makes for a amusing flick. The fact that the cast is able to deliver the lines with comedic timing only makes things all that much better.

How else could Duke sneak into the party?

If Duke isn’t enough weirdness for you he is pursued by the mascot of the park. Cowboy Cool is your typical cartoon mascot with an oversized head that also is the guardian of the park. He realizes that Duke has escaped and goes to the ball pit where he keeps his magic gun. Not sure you should store firearms in a kid’s ball pit, but then again, I’m not a professional mascot so I’m not qualified to comment. Regardless we get to see Cowboy Cool track down Duke and show up at the party for some added goofiness. If things aren't weird enough for you yet the movie doubles down with one of the ladies making ‘romance’ with Duke. That got your attention didn’t it?

The movie isn’t focused on gore, but that doesn’t mean they skimp out on the kills. People die by unicorn horn, which clearly had to happen. There are also some kills involving a garrote, machete, bow and arrow, pizza cutter, and laser eyes. Okay I don’t get the laser eyes, but it is a magical carousel unicorn come to life, so suspension of disbelief needs to come into play. These are only some of the kills but enough to make the point that CarousHell doesn’t skimp on the blood.

This is the first movie that I’ve seen from director Steve Rudzinski. He comes highly recommended and I can see why. It is impressive that he took such an absurd idea and made it an immensely entertaining and funny movie. Horror is hard to do, but comedy is much harder. I will be checking out more of his flicks soon. Like maybe tomorrow.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer