7.05.2016

CARNAGE PARK - Review

NR (17+)  |  1h 30min | Action, Crime, Horror 
Review - Matt Mungle

*In select theaters and VOD July 1st 2016*

Synopsis 
This pure-pulp thrill ride jumps between past and present as it pieces together the puzzle of a shocking crime. It’s 1978 and a bank robbery gone wrong leaves Vivian (The Last Exorcism’s Ashley Bell) the hostage of two criminals on the run. But things go from bad to off-the-rails berserk when she and her captors wind up on the sun-baked desert outpost of a deranged ex-military sniper (Pat Healy), who ensnares them in his deadly game of cat and mouse. Rising horror auteur Mickey Keating (Pod, Darling) directs this gritty, grisly homage to the glory days of grindhouse cinema.

Review: CARNAGE PARK took me back to the films I used to rent as a teen. Those days when all you had to go by was the box art at the video store. It is a high energy fuel ride that makes you glad you are, at the moment, safe and secure. Mickey Keating has a knack for directing the horror genre so that it is more about the intensity and skin crawling characters instead of run of the mill, seen-it-a-hundred times, cliches.

Ashley Bell also shows she can get down and dirty with the best of them. She is no easy win blonde and the villains in this film soon learn the hard way. Vivian (Bell) has found herself in the worst situation when she is held hostage by some bumbling bank robbers. Now she must try and find her way out of a sadistic, mad man's (Pat Healy) playground. 

Healy looks far too comfortable in the deranged role. You can add him to the list of creepy off the grid psycho's that haunt your nightmares. He plays it subtle with little or no hint of sanity. He is calm in his craziness which is always the most terrifying. 

Though Unrated CARNAGE PARK is an adult film due to the graphic violence and language. Not for the squeamish or lighthearted. Those who love tasty cinema soaked in gritty, grindhouse spices will eat this one up.

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