Carnival of Blood (1970)

The Age of Commercialism

Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

After having seen the interestingly strange Horror film The Undertaker and His Pals,I felt that it was a good time to pay a visit to the carnival and see the second movie on the disc.The plot:Going to a carnival,a number of various couples visit a fortune teller,who tells each of them to "go home" when she gets a card that she does not want them to know about. Ignoring her advice.each couple go on different rides at the carnival,which ends with them all getting brutally killed by a stranger stomping round the carnival.As the bodies start to pile up,Tom decides to investigating.Tracking down the fortune teller,Tom forces her to read his fortune,in the hope that it will change his fortunes in catching the killer.View on the film:Backed by sweet Folk songs and a scrambled Jazz score,writer/director Leonard Kirtman & cinematographer David Howe soak up the on location Coney Island filming,with wonky camera moves and long wide shots capturing the long lines for the rides,and giving the Slasher killings a raw,grubby atmosphere.Originally appearing to be a Slasher flick, Kirtman takes the title in an anthology direction via focusing on a new couple every 10 minutes.Whilst this stops the movie from hitting a dead end,Kirtman's fails to give the couples any unique features which leads to each of them being rather interchangeable,with the film only starting to heat up as Kirtman reveals the Slasher killer on a surprisingly tragic note,as the carnage at the carnival ends.

Someone is killing people at a Coney Island amusement park. Don (a d.a in training) and his whiny girlfriend Laura go to investigate.You know--I love bad horror movies. But I love the ones that are so bad they're funny. This isn't funny. It's full on unpleasant characters that you want dead within minutes. The movie is also 95% dialogue--all of it bad and uninteresting. People just walk around or stand around and talk endlessly about nothing. The dialogue is terrible and the acting is even worse. The movie has an R rating for three gory murders. They ARE bloody but have the worst gore effects I've ever seen outside of a Herschell Gordon Lewis movie. It was so bad I thought they were kidding. I fast forwarded my way through most of the movie. Did I mention it has FOLK music during the movie which is REALLY out of place. This is only of interest as being Burt Youngs' (billed here as Jack Harris--wise move) first film. Really dull and just very VERY bad. This can safely be avoided.

Set in Coney Island this is the story of a psycho killing people on the midway. I'll leave the actual plot for you to work out when you see this.This is one of those so bad its good movies, one where your jaw hangs open in disbelief at whats going on.Take for example the music. Its folk music. Why? I have no idea. I don't think anyone who had a brain cell couldn't see that the music chosen has nothing to do with whats going on on screen. Its so opposite to what you are seeing it grates on you.Its occasionally acted and partially written which makes it somewhat watchable.Its a movie to get drunk and watch laugh at.Its interesting to watch the carnival scenes since its incredibly obvious that they are filming at an operating carnival since people are constantly looking at the actors in a puzzled manner. The crowd scenes after the opening decapitation are fall down funny. As is the response time of the police and medics to the crime scene, never has help arrived that fast in New York.If you're in the mood for grade Z entertainment I recommend the film for a nights rental.

Yes, the splatter effects are cheesy and yes, there is some bad acting, and yes, the dialog is stupid in most parts, and yes, there are jump cuts and cheesy music. I wouldn't call this movie great but it does have some entertainment value. Gee, I wonder why Burt Young went uncredited on this one...hehe. That being said, it's not really that bad. Believe it or not I can see how someone might not know right away who the real killer is. The location of Coney Island in Brooklyn worked nicely. The story is basically this -- There is a murderer loose in Coney Island who kills women. The funny thing is, he kills mostly obnoxious patrons of the carnival. One of the victims is very memorable. She cuts lines, snarls at people, and steals every frame of film she's in. Another memorable character is the fortune teller. Anyway, the main character of the movie is of course a young woman who loves spending time at the carnival. Burt Young plays Gimpy, a weirdo who runs one of the booths. Worth watching once for camp value.