NEW HORROR RELEASES - 57) Vampire Burt's Serenade (2020)

Humans have it bad...monsters have it worse!

Director
Ken Roht

Cast
Kevin Scott Richardson - Vampire Burt
Diva Zappa - Connie
Brian Gaskill - Sid
Brandon Heitkamp - Todd
Brooke Baldwin - Sally Satchel
Sharon Ferguson - Clare Dare Human

The upcoming independent movie Vampire Burt's Serenade considers itself a "naughty vampire musical" - a raucous, raunchy, bloody thriller with a touch of camp.
This movie, scheduled for digital release May 8 on Amazon Pay and Amazon Prime, certainly doesn't disappoint.
There's raunch - lots of raunch. There's squirting, splattering blood. There's rock  music...tons of it. And buried underneath squirming its way to the surface is the campiness.
In this story, Burt (Kevin Scott Richardson) is well known among all the clubbers at the Bootleg Rock and Strip Club.
Though he's a creature of darkness working his evil charm in the night, he doesn't hide behind the shadows. He'll take his victims in the middle of a crowd. So much so that it's commonplace.
Burt bites the neck of his friend Todd (Brandon Heitkamp) who just didn't want to be a vampire. But now he is.
Regardless, they enter the club to see Todd's girlfriend, Connie (Diva Zappa). In the middle of her performance, she realizes Todd is a vampire and curses Burt out while having patrons start turning into a raging mob chanting to kill the vampire.
As the club's owner, Sid (Brian Gaskill) comes out to settling things down, Burt ends up biting him in front of strippers and patrons.
It turns out Sid doesn't survive the attack, and the strippers vow revenge to kill the vampire.
Meanwhile, Burt bites Connie who is much more appreciative in being undead and goes on a killing spree. But through typical vampire circumstances, she ends up becoming a little more than just a vampire.
The strippers collectively agree to hire a vampire hunter (Kenneth Hughes) to take on Burt. He requires $10,000 to do the job. The strippers hold a "strip-off" to raise the money to kill Sid's killer.
Meanwhile, Burt visits homicidal artist Clare Dare Human (Sharon Ferguson) who's also his drug hookup.

Human brings in some kidnapped virgins, lethargic on drugs, for Burt to feed on while he's saturated in a variety of exquisite cocaines.
Their plan is to kill Burt will he's high, sluggish, and fed. It's a creative plot with a satisfying ending to such a multi-genre horror movie. 
While all the promised elements are there, the campiness reminds me of that from What We Do in the Shadows (2014). The camp and comedy flows naturally with the story's circumstances.

Kevin Richardson as Burt.

Vampire Burt's Serenade respects the classic vampire tropes as it places them in modern society. This makes the entire lore appreciated in a different way.
The humor is the perfect touch above all. The movie doesn't stretch the humor nor force it on the audience. It doesn't need to. The comedy fits right in as though it belongs there.
What does feel forced is the singing. I know it's a musical, and its being a musical isn't a problem. I counted 30 songs in this approximately one hour and 15 minute story. At times, they felt like filler and some of the singing became distracting while slowing the pace down. As Burt tells Connie in the beginning of the movie as she adjusts to being a vampire and starts indulging in neck biting, "too much is too much."
Still, other songs are hilarious and fun in their perfectly awkward placement. For instance, as chemistry rises between Todd and Clare Dare Human's young female assistant, they sneak into a dirty bathroom stall inside the art studio. In there, they sing that even though they're about to have sex in a dirty bathroom, love is still present. Some of these songs, and their humor, grew on me thanks to song writers Ken Roht and Paul Goldowitz.
Somewhere underneath the movie's skin is a young versus old motif as Connie the vampire, played by rock legend Frank Zappa's daughter, Diva, works alongside Vampire Burt, played by Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson. 
I found both Richardson and Sharon Ferguson's performances fantastic. Richardson's drive and charisma as Burt is clearly natural. It's probably drawn from his being a Backstreet Boy.
Like Anthony Hopkins making the cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter bordering on likability among audiences despite being a monster of the worst kind, Richardson does the same with the overly self-indulgent, blood sucking, lustful, callous Burt. He's almost just as likable in a way.
And Ferguson shows Clare Dare Human's narcissistic-drive homicidal ways not only through her actions but also in her intensity and eyes. It takes great talent to really make the audience feel disgust towards a character that deserves it.
The Reinfeld of this movie is Todd. He's loyal to Burt, but certainly not to a fault. He's forced into becoming a vampire. And like Reinfeild, who also became a vampire, Todd is a little inept at his powers overall.

Clay Wilcox, Diva Zappa, and Max Faugno.

Heitkamp is a good casting decision with his youthful looks and ability to portray a carefree attitude, though his acting occasionally seems to lack.
The movie also stars Brooke Baldwin who previously starred in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Writer and director, Ken Roht was previously a nominee for two Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards for his theater work.
And Producer Kenneth Hughes is known for a diverse list of movie titles such as Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, Einstein's God Model, and Fell, Jumped, or Pushed.
The movie makes its own vampire with a great potential to be among the ranks of so many classic blood suckers before him. And the movie itself has potential to be quite the cult classic thanks to its humor and notable cast.
It seems to wander off a bit in the second half, confusing me where it wants to go with the story. But it quickly finds its way back on track, taking a hold of my interest well into the end of the film.
It's naughty alright. Vampires have always been naughty. Vampire Burt's Serenade takes it up several notches, just enough for originality's sake.
After its May 8 premier on Amazon, Vampire Burt's Serenade will be available on other platforms. Horror fans shouldn't be disappointed in this late, late night horror musical comedy.

56) Arcade (1993)

"What makes 'Arcade' different? It reacts!"

Director
Albert Pyun

Cast
Megan Ward - Alex Manning
Peter Billingsley - Nick
A.J. Langer - Laurie
Seth Green - Stilts
Brian Dattilo - Greg
John DeLancie- Difford

During my teenage years in the 1990s, growing up in the hills of Oakland, California, we had our neighborhood video rental just like so many other neighborhoods.
Ours was called "California Video" located in the Lincoln Square Shopping Center on Mountain Blvd.  It was next to a liquor store, a bank, and a travel agency. All these businesses surrounded the Safeway which is still there to this day, and is still the main attraction at Lincoln Square. Sadly, California Video is long gone, but the memories remain.

Anyways, among the well known titles that decorated the shelves by genre there were extremely obscure movies never released at a theater near you. Titles such as My Pet Monster (1986), Ricky 1 (1989), whatever movies Troma put out in the 80s and 90s, and The Search for Animal Chin (1987) - that had a young Tony Hawk in it, and starred the "Bones Brigade." Yeah! Remember them? The Bones Brigade! No, of course you don't unless you happened to have been a skateboarder back in the decade. Radical!

Well, the 1993 horror/ sci-fi movie Arcade feels completely like one of those very low-budget, truly obscure titles a few people may have stumbled upon at random, sitting in their local mom and pop video stores.
I'm sure this was a title many a person looking for something to watch on a Friday night often glanced over. Maybe a few 12-year olds who were drawn to the title and the cover art of a girl playing a virtual reality game (yeah- that was the future for 1993), and convinced their moms to rent it.
The synopsis on the back reads "There's a new game at Dante's Inferno, and the kids are dying to play it." Oh, I could definitely see the appeal of this straight-to-video, family friendly horror movie for those 90s kids.
While the 80s were a successful decade for video games both at home as well as the quarter machines where video games could be played, virtual reality offered a unique and different experience. It's no wonder virtual reality was thought to be "the wave of the future."

Though it didn't take off quite like people thought it would, virtual reality did make its mark. Just not quite the way the 90s anticipated.
Megan Ward plays a teenager, Alex Manning, who's suffering turmoil as she feels she hasn't dealt with her mother's suicide the way she believes she should have. Her mother shot herself in the head right inside her home. And since then, Alex blames herself. She lives with her dad who is still suffering a lot of remorse at losing his wife.
Alex and her boyfriend, Greg, along with their friends decide to hang out at the local arcade called "Dante's Inferno."
They've seen a bunch of ads for a new game release called "Arcade" and are eager to try it.
The game company's CEO, Difford (John de Lancie) is at Dante's Inferno to promote Arcade they night they all go to hang out.
He explains how it's virtual reality, and offers Nick (Peter Billingsley), one of the teens in the group, a free game.
He plays it, and when he's done, Nick tells the crew, "you gotta try this."
As Difford offers the kids free home consoles, they leave with him into another room to claim their swag. Alex's boyfriend stays behind and tries Arcade on his own.
The game shows itself to be cognisant, and traps him in the game.
Alex goes to find Greg, and assumes he just left without them. Confused, she heads home to call him but obviously can't reach him.
At home, she tries her free home console of Arcade. That's when she finds out the game is alive as it knows her name and tells her Greg is captive inside.
When she leaves the game and takes the virtual reality goggles off, she finds several hours have passed even though it felt like she was only playing for minutes..
Scared, though not convincingly so, she calls Nick and heads over to his place to tell him the game is alive. Of course, he doesn't believe it.
However, after later visiting their friend Laurie (A.J. Langer) it becomes clear to Nick that Alex was right.

Megan Ward, Peter Billingsley, and Norbert Weisser.

He and Alex visit the gaming company and are able to talk directly to the game developer under the guise that they're looking for secrets to pass difficult levels.
As the teenagers keep digging into the game play, the developer admits to the company's immoral decision to use the human brain cells from a boy who had been previously beaten by his own mother when developing the game.
So, the teenagers along with the game's developer work to free the other teens held captive in the game by ultimately playing through each level and beating it. They all sneak into Dante's Inferno to challenge the game, and it soon becomes game versus players.
I never heard of Arcade until I stumbled upon the title doing a Google search for horror film suggestions. 

What caught my interest was its cast. It stars Peter Billingsley (A Christmas Story), Seth Green, A.J. Langer (The People Under the Stairs), Megan Ward, and John de Lancie ("Q" from Star Trek: The Next Generation.) 

Its biggest problem is the lack of emotion. Despite the game kidnapping Greg and, well, being alive, Alex barely has any emotion when she finds out Greg is trapped in the game, that the game is evil and self-aware, and she goes to tell Nick. She acts as though she went over to Nick's place to tell him she lost her favorite lipstick.
The story line seems very loosely based on Disney's Tron. If a film student with access to a green screen and an early version of Apple Paint wanted to make their own movie similar to Tron, but totally not Tron, this movie would be it. 

It does try to tell an interesting tale of SciFi thrills. It just doesn't quite accomplish that. It's too scripted, and that gets in the way. Billingsley looks bored have the time, and sometimes has a look on his face that says, "why am I here?"
The bad acting that's sprinkled through this film lasts all the way to the end, making the climax laughable and underwhelming.

Megan Ward.

And, sadly, it's a movie that hasn't aged well. Arcade is a victim of its time as far as the story line and effects go. The CGI is very primitive, but I admit it is a bit fun to watch
Director Albert Pyun directed SciFi/ action thriller movies such as Cyborg with Van Damme, Radioactive Dreams, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and even the 1990 version of  Captain America. So this movie fits into is line of story telling.
I can understand the reasoning for any cult followings this movie might have. It may have been something to watch for young teen gamers back in the 90s. It has some nostalgic charm to it. Otherwise, it's a schlocky 90s bore.
  

55) Vampire Circus (1972)

The Circus of Nights! A hundred delights!

Director
Robert Young

Cast
Laurence Payne - Dr. Albert Muller
Thorley Walters - Peter, Mayor of Stetl
Robert Tayman - Count Mitterhaus
Adrienne Corri - Gypsy woman
Skip Martin - Michael the Dwarf
Anthony Corlan - Emil

Leave it to British film company Hammer Films Ltd. to make a movie with a seemingly outlandish title such as Vampire Circus and make it fun, bloody, doomy, gloomy, horror-y, macabre, and suspenseful.

It opens with a schoolmaster, Albert Muller (Laurence Payne) seeing his wife Anna (Domini Blythe) bring a little girl named Jenny into the castle of Count Mitterhaus.
Muller screams for his wife to stop, but she doesn't. Both he and the villagers know Mitterhaus is a vampire.
And seeing his wife run into the castle is Muller's confirmation that she's really the vampire's mistress and slave. Anna brings him young Jenny so he can consume her blood.
And that's what he does.
The villagers of the nearby town of Stetl, located in Serbia, assemble at the castle doors to find Mitterhaus and kill him. They plan their attack and storm the castle. Inside, they find the dead body of Jenny which really drives them all to kill Mitterhaus without mercy.
After several in the mob are killed, the group ultimately subdues Mitterhaus and drives a steak through his heart.
Before he dies, though, Mitterhaus curses the town claiming their children will die and their blood will bring him back to life.
They then take Anna outside where they whip her as punishment before banishing her.
Fifteen years later, a disease plagues the villagers, and local authorities place a blockade on all the entrances into Stetl.
Villagers are warned that anyone who tries to leave town during the quarantine will be shot.
Those who remember the curse fear the sickness that's spreading is part of it. But the new local doctor, Kersh, thinks vampires are nothing but a myth.
A traveling circus called "Circus of Night" comes into town. The villagers don't seem too concerned how an entire travelling circus was able to pass the barricades. Rather, they're excited at having something new to entertain them.
The caravan is led by an alluring, almost hypnotizing, gypsy woman and a dwarf named Michael.
Little does anyone know that one of the performers named Emil, who can transform into a panther, is actually Mitterhaus's cousin as well as a vampire.

Robert Tayman as Count Mitterhaus.

Other performers are vampires as well. And little by little, they begin to fulfill Mitterhaus's curse from 15 years ago as they lure in unsuspecting villagers intrigued by the wonders the circus has brought to town during this sad time. Children go missing, falling prey to the vampires, while the village scrambles to grasp what is happening.
It's suspenseful and still manages to be scary all these years later. Most Hammer movies are!
Hammer played a huge rule in reviving the classic Universal monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy - back in the 1960s and 1970s. A lot of their horror movies star Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing (Star Wars: A New Hope) Michael Gough (Tim Burton's Batman) and other famous British actors whose faces modern audiences are familiar with.
With titles such as Taste the Blood of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, watching a Hammer horror movie is as great and nostalgic as watching a Godzilla monster brawl from Toho Studios.
The movie doesn't have to be great. The novelty is still exciting.
Hammer monster movies are often period films with high quality production standards. It adds to their charm and appreciation.
This movie works really well with its macabre circus setting, imagery and camera angles, and sinister tone as vampires go after youth for the sake of revenge.
The deadly peril of children is something not often touched on in horror movies. If it is, it's generally depicted behind the scenes.
Or, in the case of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the teenagers look enough like adults so the audience doesn't cringe as much when they see them fall victim to Freddy Krueger.
That's why the recent adaptations of Stephen King's It seem to pinch nerves with audiences as the main villain Pennywise's blatant evil nature and hunger for children's fears, is shown right before your very eyes.
Right in the opening shot of Chapter One, the audience gets to see exactly what he does to little Georgie Denbrough before he drags him into the dark recesses of the sewer. It was a frighting scene. Nothing else could have set the tone of the entire story as well as Pennywise attacking little Georgie.
It's a pretty bold movie.
Children depicted as pray to the monsters is a line most movies won't cross.
Vampire Circus does dip its toe past that line of sensitivity. It's really unsettling and sets the tone so superbly.
Vampire Circus also stars David Prowse (Darth Vader himself) as the strong man. Prowse appeared in a few other Hammer productions such as The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). 
This movie was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England were some legendary movies have come to be - Dr. No and a ton of other James Bond movies, Superman, Tim Burton's Batman, and Aliens to name a few.
Though the story is easily predictable at times, its style and pace is alluring. Though the effects and visuals may be dated, it still creates an uneasy, unsettling feeling for the audience.
A Hammer movie with vampires is classic, indeed. "Vampire Circus" fits in the genre so well.

54) The Lift (1983)

"What is actually wrong with the lift?"

Director
Dick Maas

Cast
Huub Stapel - Felix Adelaar
Willeke van Ammelrooy - Mieke de Beer
Josine van Dalsum - Saskia Adelaar

I'm turning my attention to the Netherlands with the movie The Lift (aka De Lift) that's classified as SciFi horror.
Released in the Netherlands in 1983, and in the U.S. in 1985, the movie turns a simple elevator into a thing of terror! Or, well, it tries to.
Right off the bat, the only thing horrifying about The Lift are the stupid characters in the movie. And they're not comedic dumb. No! They're the result of dumb writing.
The elevator inside an Amsterdam office building suddenly turns as violent as an elevator can. It's true nature manifests itself one particular stormy evening as a group of party goers leave the top floor restaurant early in the morning.
Drunk and obnoxious, they end up stuck in the lift. The temperature rises inside as one of them starts to pass out. Another begins to have sex with his wife or girlfriend. (Yeah! They do.) And another one in the party also passes out. We later find out they survived and had to be rushed to the hospital due to the hot temperatures inside the lift.
The building manager contacts the repair company, Deta Liften, which sends out repairman Felix Adelaar (Huub Stapel).
His primary inspection finds everything in perfect working order. Like the building managers, Adelaar doesn't understand how the elevator could suddenly malfunction with all parts working without any issues.
During his inspection, a journalist named Meike (Willeke van Ammelrooy) who's a writer for the local tabloid called De Nieuwe Revu walks in on him. After taking a few pictures, and chatting with him, she becomes just as intrigued by the strange malfunctioning of the elevator.
After more strange and dangerous occurrences with the lift, Adelaar becomes more and more obsessed with figuring out what could be causing these deadly issues.
One such occurrence involves a security guard who's head gets stuck in the doors as the elevator is up at the top floor. It slowly maneuvers its way down until it takes his head clean off. It's pretty sick.

Adelaar's drive to figure out why the elevator is causing so many deaths and injuries begins to ruin his marriage.
Still, the more he digs into the lift's manufacture history, the more its story becomes surreal and freaky.
He's finally left facing the machine with only one thing in mind - its destruction.
The SciFi horror story line about an evil elevator isn't the problem. A lot of horror movies are based on regular, everyday objects becoming cognizant and destructive. Whether those objects be killer tomatoes, or man-eating sofas, or evil donuts, or a random rubber tire with ESP abilities, or all trucks and machines suddenly turning on mankind, campy horror can be entertaining just for its own sake.
The Lift however elevates itself (no pun intended) above that campy style. It takes itself seriously enough. That's not necessarily a criticism.
With this movie, the execution is poor. The writing isn't polished. It's as though a script was written and whoever cleans up scripts in the movie making process was taking a nap at the time the movie studio in the Netherlands gave this movie the green light.
And what makes the movie non-believable isn't the evil elevator. It's the behavior of the characters. They simply do not act believable. They just follow the script, and that's all.
I'm not talking about the cliche' horror movie behavior where horror movie characters ignorantly put themselves in harms way that's otherwise so easily avoidable. No, their deeds are strange and unusual, even for a sci-fi/horror movie. Even bad movies can get that right.
In one scene, the manager of the building has the wife of one of his employees in his office for an affair. As they start "doing the deed", he asks her "what about your daughter?"
She replies her daughter is safe in the lobby.
The scene switches to a little girl waiting for her mommy, completely alone in the lobby with her doll. It's a maddening scene, actually.
The elevators start opening and closing purposely to gain the kid's curiosity. It's as though the elevator is playing a cat and mouse game.
The scene switches back to the couple in the office as they hear the daughter scream. When they run out, the doll's arm is severed and stuck in the elevator doors, and its face is smashed.
The mother yells at the little girl, angry over the state of her doll, gives the poor child a cold smack across the face. She calls her a "brat" for the dolls destruction.
What could be more unbelievable than that?

Huub Stapel in The Lift.

After a janitor is found inside the elevator, having died from mysterious circumstances related to the elevator, the owners put the blame of the strange goings-on, on him. Why? Because they believe since the janitor was always in the building whenever someone died, that somehow makes him guilty. Again, they blame the janitor. It's like listening to Abbott and Costello's Who's on First. You just want to jump in the middle of it so you can explain the situation. Obviously the janitor is always in the building because...he's the damn janitor!
And everyone seems to go with this. I just can't even begin? Even the news reporter goes with this explanation.
Oh, but not Felix. He seems to have a hunch the janitor isn't to blame. This isn't comedic. This is plain bad writing. C'mon, Netherlands!
However, this movie's storyline has a Stephen King feel to it. As King has written stories that include possessed laundry presses, a house transforming into a machine, a Buick 8 that acts as a gateway to another dimension or realm, an entire town populated by deceased rock and roll legends, a freaky Polaroid camera, and a set of novelty chattering teeth that seemingly come to life, a movie about a sinister building elevator seems to fit King's world.
Though there's gore and terror peppered in here and there, the movie is saturated with exposition. There's so much talking in this movie, the horror stuff was like a reward for sitting through so much of it. Unless the movie wanted the audience to feel like their waiting for an elevator, most of the movie was spent waiting for something to happen.
Despite that, the story is a compelling one and does maintain interest - barely. I mean, for horror fans, it'll take you where you want to go. The ending is suspenseful but I wouldn't say it was worth waiting for.
Evidently, there is a 2001 American remake directed by Dick Maas called The Shaft starring James Marshall and Naomi Watts. I'll have to keep an eye out for this.
Otherwise, I'd say The Lift is an easy pass. I'd just take the next one.

53) Carnage (1984)

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Director
Andy Milligan

Cast
Leslie Den Den Dooven - Carol
Michael Chiodo - Jonathan\
Lon Freeman - Nathan Frye
DeeAnn Veeder - Susan
Chris Georges - Mark
Chris Baker - Ann
Dennis Malvasi - Tony

I have sat through some movies that I can only call "heavy." I can't think of anything else to call them. Hardcore? In your face? Horror movies that inflict much more terrible violence than your average slasher. Movies like The Human Centipede (I had to pause this movie just to compose myself, and still ignored my better judgement when I decided to watch The Human Centipede 2. I never finished the sequel) and The Devil's Rejects from Director Rob Zombie.
With The Devil's Rejects, I didn't know if I was watching something that celebrated violence of the absolute worst kind, or was portraying a picture of how despicably low fallen people can go. Whatever the case, it definitely worked to out-horror The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Still, it did make me an ardent admirer of the acting abilities of Bill Moseley. His completely intimidating performance as Otis Driftwood turned out to be one of the worst movie "monster" villains that would give Freddy Krueger or the possessed Regan MacNeil a run for their money.
So, having sat through difficult movies such as these, I still had yet to sit through a movie from the independent movie production company, Troma. That is until I watched Carnage (1984).
Troma brands itself as the movie company that has been "disturbing media for 45 years."
From movie clips and reviews I've watched, their films are generally filled with gross splatter, gore, spoof, bathroom horror, bare skin, and lots of low-budget effects.
I can take slasher flicks, but with segments I've seen from the more well known grossout Troma movies such as Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Tromeo and Juliette, and Terror Firmer, I need to mentally prepare myself up to these if I so choose to subject myself to these kinds of movies sometime in the future. I just won't eat anything for a while if I do.
Laugh at my self-proclamation as a horror fan if you must for the lack of Troma on my list of horror movies viewed.
Well, I can finally add a Troma movie to this list.

Chris Georges in Carnage.

As my adventures through the Night Screams Collection continues, the 1984 independent paranormal horror movie Carnage is officially my first Troma movie. Though, I am a little ashamed my first wasn't The Toxic Avenger - Troma's most well known title. Sorry, Toxy 😢
I didn't know Carnage was a Troma film until I popped the disc in the DVD player. I suppose getting into this company's films is like peeling a Band-Aid off. Don't think about it. Just yank it off quickly to avoid excessive pain, make sure your sore doesn't start bleeding, and get on with life.
Before I put Carnage on, I watched another movie from the Night Screams Collection called City of Missing Girls (1941) which TV Guide once called "an awkward murder mystery." I planned to review that here, but it was far from being a horror movie, and I just couldn't get myself to pay enough attention to it. So, a review wouldn't seem fair.
Anyways, the movie Carnage has a simple plot.
It opens with a young newlywed couple dressed in their wedding clothes as "Here Comes the Bride" plays on a record player.

The couple embrace as if it'll be their last embrace. The groom pulls out a gun and slowly raises it to her head. He pulls the trigger, and the bride collapses to the floor. He bends down to gaze on his wife as he puts the gun to his own head.
Sometime after this suicide, another newly wed couple, Carol and Jonathan, moves into the same house. As the two settle in, they're initially unaware of the paranormal activity taking place around the house almost as soon as they move in.
The ghosts haunting this large home enjoy randomly moving a variety of objects under their nose, or just out of sight of the couple.
They also make the phone ring at random, and turn on random electronics and appliances like the gas stove. Though initially unnoticed, these spooky shenanigans leave the couple confused, but they dismiss it.
When Carol invites an older lady to sort through belongings left in the basement, she's left alone as Carol goes back upstairs.
An apparition of the former bride appears and begins tormenting this older lady while shouting at her to leave.
The lady goes into a terrified state of shock at what just took place. While bed ridden at her home, she's driven by voices in her head to slice her own throat.
These paranormal activities don't seem to phase the couple much as they prepare for their own house warming party.
As the party gets underway, and guests arrive for an overnight stay, the ghosts (the bride particularly) become more violent and vengeful. It becomes very clear to the home owners that their house is indeed haunted.
There are no plot twists in this movie. There's not too much to expect, and that's what the audience gets - not too much.
Carnage is also a low budget picture with poor special effects and the scariest thing being the terrible scripted acting. In fact, this movie feels more like a community theater play or, rather, someone's home movie.
But it does have its share of blood and guts. In one scene, some burglars break into the house's basement through a window. As they meander around, the ghost bride manifests herself to them and begins to torture the two. One burglar's intestines are pulled out while the other loses his hand by a floating hatchet. Despite the laughable effects, the ghosts are certainly no-nonsense.

The audience is also introduced to another newly wed couple who are friends of Carol and Jonathan. We're "treated" to their personal issues through a discussion between Ann and her mother regarding Ann's husband, Tony.

Michael Chiodo and Leslie Den Den Doovan.

These friends are invited to the house warming party, but their story adds nothing to the movie. Why we're introduced to this couple to such great extent is beyond me.
And speaking of bad effects, one scene has Tony taking a bath during the overnight party. It's obvious when he gets in the tub that there's no water.
A radio slowly moves towards Tony in the tub filled with pretend water by an unseen force until it falls in and electrocutes him. Then the camera cuts to a close up of his lifeless body floating in the tub now filled with bathwater.
If this movie actually had been a home movie, I'd be impressed.
Director Andy Milligan has some other B-horror titles in his repertoire of obscure movies such as The Man With Two Heads, Bloodthirsty Butchers, Monstrosity, and Legacy of Blood. He's definitely a prime director when it comes to these kind of movies. Perhaps he deserves a little more exploration.
Despite all these criticisms, movies like Carnage are the reason I made this blog in the first place. It's terrible, schlocky as can be, and funny when it's not meant to be. It's Troma! - disturbing media for 45 years.
The only people whom I expect would find enjoyment in this movie would be fans of Troma, or obscure B-horror movies in general. It does have a kill count, after all.