I tried this movie out 3 or 4 weeks ago. It looked like, despite The Strangeness (and excluding my beloved Forbidden Zone), it might be the lowest budget movie I might ever intentionally watch. I made it about 8 minutes in before I gave up. It just looked below a threshold I could enjoy.
But I tried again the next day because I have been loving going to the bottom of the barrel, budget-wise, and finding what value I could. This time I made it only 6 minutes and 17 seconds.
This afternoon, I put it on in the background while I did other things, maybe just to be able to claim that I'd watched it. Put it on in the background until I can't take it anymore. And getting a little further in, it put everything else in the background and took me all the way to the end.
For a brief synopsis, the Norris Family applies for jobs at a carnival, where they are given the tour on a bright sunny day by the carnival's co-proprietor, Mr. Blood. Meanwhile, another family gets in the little boats for the tunnel-ride. The boats come out empty. That night, a young man takes a ride on the roller-coaster. He comes back without his head. His friend runs for help but gets a spike through the forehead for his efforts. Meanwhile, Mr. Blood has dinner with the Norrises. He doesn't eat much. Strict diet, apparently. Keeps him alive. After he leaves. The Norrises conversation turns to Johnny, who they will find or take their revenge on Mr. Blood. And so starts a cat and mouse game so absurdly one sided that the mice don't even realize they're mice. While the underground denizens of the carnival feast on the body of the young man, cheered on by Mr. Blood's partner, and Master, Malatesta, who gets to keep young Vena Norris' blood has already become the reward for the winner of the game. And it doesn't look like it's going to be Vena Norris.
(my apologies for the image-quality, best I could find)
Anyway, this movie turned out to be another bizarre treat for me. It's a weird story, with a weird setting, weird direction, and it's made even weirder (as is often the case) by the budget. The movie actually turns its low-budget into a sort of positive by making the most of the carnival setting where everything is fake and cheap anyway and this gives it a very real and very fantasy quality at the same time.
There is, to my utter surprise, an actual vision here, steeped in bizarre Euro-horror, that I did not see coming at all. That, nightmarish, dream-like quality that you see in so many of those films is part of the fabric of this one. There is a great sequence in the middle of the film that appears to be a nightmare, and a wonderful one at that, ...that suddenly turns out to be reality. With no warning. One minute you think you're in Vena's nightmare and the next Vena is running for her life in real-life. It's really nice.
Another thing I really enjoyed here is that part of the menace of the story is the way these fiends act seemingly with zero concern for anything stopping them. Mr. Blood and his monsters are utterly confident that everything is going to happen the way they plan, as it always does. They are going to kill who they want, they are going to eat who they want, they are going to live and devour in their bizarre cult, and there is nothing any victim can possibly do about it. They are not the least bit afraid of anything. They do not give a f*ck. And that’s a little more frightening.
My only gripe would be in casting. And one appreciates that casting can be tricky on this budget. But, while Mr. Blood's performance is very fitting, he's an odd looking man for the part, bald and doughy. And the ultimate villain of the piece, Malatesta himself, is wrong, which is a shame because a scarier Big Bad might really have pushed this film over the top. Especially in his Texas Chainsaw-like final scene. Wrong actor I think. Just wasn’t able to be menacing when he was supposed to be. Maybe it’s the time, the idea that in 1973, you could appear frightening despite a big bushy mustache. You can’t.
The negatives of this film, though, are really all budgetary. The movie has a nice vision, a clear narrative, and some legitimate artistry that elevates it. You wouldn’t believe, in the first five minutes, that this movie was even going to be watchable. But you will. And you'll be glad you let it take you to the end.
PS- This movie loves bubble-wrap. Sorry, that's a non-sequitur, but it's hilariously true. You'll see what I mean if you watch it.