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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Franklin Guerrero Jr.
Kristyn Green (Pretty Cool Too)
Matt Carmody (Boys and Girls)
Natasha Malinsky (Angel's Blade)
Luke Vitale
Supplied By : Allumination Filmworks
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : March. 10, 2008
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| PLOT Based on true events, Carver tells the tale of five friends on a short camping trip in the mountain town of Halcyon Ridge. When they take a small detour to an abandoned farm owned by the Carver family, they fumble onto a horror film they think is only a movie. As they explore their eerie surroundings, they discover the truth behind the film and the Carver family. They begin to open doors that should never have been opened. Soon, it becomes a matter of life imitating art and art imitating death. |
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| THE REVIEW In CARVER, a group of young campers stop at a local small bar, and before leaving they are made an offer by the bartender. He asks them if they'd be willing to help him out by hauling some supplies from his stockyard - In payment, the young man offers them all the alcohol they want. Not being able to resist, the group heads to the man's shack nearby. Curiosity would get to them, as when they arrive, they begin to look around, and they eventually find a bunch of film reels, along with an old projector. They all decide to take a look at the said reels, and on them they find what looks to be homemade Horror films starring the bartender's overweight son. But when one of them goes missing, and they find footage of themselves located on one of the son's newer reels, it is then they realize, that the "movies" in which they viewed earlier, were actually real and that they seem to all be the main attraction of the Carver family's latest feature. The "higher up" critics, the ones, that for the most part found little sense in films such as HOSTEL and CAPTIVITY and the like, coined up a term to identify their style, which was "torture porn". Since the release of such films, much like zombie films, the torture porn style has become a popular subject, in both theatrical and straight to video releases. CARVER is yet another movie that follows the trend, it also from the very beginning, makes you aware that it is based on a true story - how much of this is true, I am unsure of, but whatever the case may be, the film's set up is actually pretty typical. We have a group of campers who go camping out in the wilderness of a mountain town and end up being dragged back to a backwoods Hillbilly's house and killed off one by one in many different gruesome ways. The set up is really thin as is any character development. We never really get to know any of the characters here, as they seem to have but one purpose for being there, and that is for the filmmakers to kill them in any way their mind desires...and oh yeah, have blood splattered all over them/ The film also prides itself, with having what it calls one of the most shocking scenes in Horror, one that consists of a man's testicles exploding, as a result of being squeezed with a pair of pliers. Sure it sounds disturbing and even pain inducing - and it is quite original....but it wasn't executed THAT effectively. The abundant CGI explosion makes the whole occurrence look a bit too implausible. Before seeing this film, although I knew it would be, I had hoped the film would have at least a little bit of story behind it, and not just be another one of those films that is more or less another excuse to put lots of gore on film. But my initial assumptions for CARVER were correct, as it is nothing much more than just a gore film, with absolutely no substance or goal behind it. I mean, the film had a great opening in which a victim is shown being killed, and at that point I thought I was in for a dark, low budget slasher. At first what was interesting, slowly starts to wear on you as you begin to see that the film is just an excuse for gore, one death scene after another, and before long it seems as if certain things are being put in for the sole purpose of another gore shot. The gore scenes happen at a rate that I found to be frequent, so frequently that these scenes begin to lose all of their effectiveness, and become much more comedic than serious. The look of the film from the very beginning tells you that CARVER appears to be in the low budget category. This was perfectly fine as some of the greatest Horror films have been low budget, but it was in other areas of production in which the film seemed to lack. I found the camera work and direction to be a little uneven as some shots look much better and more creative compared to some other lackluster angles and shots used in the film. I also thought that the dialogue was a bit too abundant and over the top, some of it just didn't seem that realistic, and for a Horror film that would like us to believe it is real, it sort of put a little damper on it's believability. I also saw a problem with just how many times someone was hit in the head with either a hammer, pipe or whatever other solid object that was around, yet no one was ever knocked out by the impact - it just seems highly illogical that a victim would be hit by a said object, and then get back up and run for their lives, nearly each and every time. Overall, CARVER is a film that does have lots of gore, is brutal, and is grisly, like the title of the unrated edition would imply. But if you are going to make a film that is intended to be shocking, at least create a something that would ultimately be an overall experience for the viewer. Watching a film that obviously has only one thing it hopes to accomplish, which is to be as gory as their budget would allow, all while delivering no story at all to accompany it, in my opinion, is no real experience of any kind. |
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| GORE
METER 6.5/10 We have hammers and other objects to the head and other areas, impalement, slit throats, gunshot explosions and wounds, and oh yeah, exploding testicles. I'm sure there is a lot more, as this film relies solely on gore alone. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 We have country tunes, and punk style tunes, along with some suspense scoring, it's nothing special, but it's decent. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM CARVER to me, seemed like one big gore exercise, and i'm sure that gorehounds will surely love this one. But for people looking for a story, or something original, you won't find it here. I have always thought that a film should never solely rely on special effects or gore, and after this one, I still feel the same way. I don't know why, but I just get bored with seeing torture scenario after torture scenario - but if this is your type of thing, check it out. |
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