If you were a fan of Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrance Zdunich's first collaborative effort, "Repo! The Genetic Opera," you are bound to love "The Devil's Carnival." On the other hand, this 55-minute film is much different from Repo! when you look past the mere similarity that both works happen to be rock-musicals.
"The Devil's Carnival" is the story of three sinners who all reach Hell after all dying simultaneously in a manner respective of their individual sins. John (Sean Patrick Flanery) commits suicide as the ultimate consequence of grieving over his son, Ms. Merrywood (Briana Evigan) is gunned down by the police after she is caught stealing and Tamara (Jessica Lowndes) is killed by an abusive boyfriend who she put undue trust in.
Each of the sinners are put through a test that applies to their particular sin with the help of a particular carnie from the "Devil's Carnival." Ms. Merrywood deals with the Twin (Nivek Ogre) and the Hobo Clown (Ivan Moody), Tamara deals with The Scorpion (Marc Senter), and John primarily deals with the Ticket-Keeper (Dayton Callie) and Lucifer (Terrance Zdunich). Various other carnies make appearances throughout, and the film is most definitely set up for a sequel.
**SPOILER BELOW**
Of the three sinners, only Ms. Merrywood and Tamara are truly punished, while John manages to escape the carnival by choosing to no longer grieve. Lucifer sends him straight up to Heaven, which in this film is personified as a toy shop where God (Paul Sorvino) is painting dolls and as he makes mistakes crafting the dolls, he throws them into a bin that says "broken," which represents the souls falling into "The Devil's Carnival." Allowing John to escape Hell is a direct violation of one of the 666 rules that the denizens of The Devil's Carnival have to follow, and the film ends with Lucifer declaring that the rules of Hell are changing. One of the most memorable lines in this part is "We're going to put Heaven out of Business."
**SPOILER END**
I thought that the story itself was extremely interesting, and clever that it was rooted in Aesop's Fables. The actors each did extremely well in portraying their respective characters...Every carnival character was so varied and distinct.
The music was wonderful as well. Whereas "Repo!" had a handful of songs that were extremely strong with some not so great numbers, "The Devil's Carnival" boasts a strong soundtrack throughout. My personal favorites are "In All My Dreams I Drown" and "Trust Me".
Overall, I feel this movie really is a must see. I have no clue when it's going to be released on DVD, but the filmmakers are currently taking the film on a tour around the country and doing a Q&A session after the screening. I attended the Los Angeles premiere and must say that it was worth driving down from Vegas. Terrance and Darren also revealed some nuggets of information about the next film in the series. They said that it will take place on a train and it will look at the carnival characters in Heaven's carnival. It sounds incredibly interesting and hopefully the interest in this movie will be strong enough to warrant a sequel.
GO SEE THE DAMN MOVIE!
"The Devil's Carnival" is the story of three sinners who all reach Hell after all dying simultaneously in a manner respective of their individual sins. John (Sean Patrick Flanery) commits suicide as the ultimate consequence of grieving over his son, Ms. Merrywood (Briana Evigan) is gunned down by the police after she is caught stealing and Tamara (Jessica Lowndes) is killed by an abusive boyfriend who she put undue trust in.
Each of the sinners are put through a test that applies to their particular sin with the help of a particular carnie from the "Devil's Carnival." Ms. Merrywood deals with the Twin (Nivek Ogre) and the Hobo Clown (Ivan Moody), Tamara deals with The Scorpion (Marc Senter), and John primarily deals with the Ticket-Keeper (Dayton Callie) and Lucifer (Terrance Zdunich). Various other carnies make appearances throughout, and the film is most definitely set up for a sequel.
**SPOILER BELOW**
Of the three sinners, only Ms. Merrywood and Tamara are truly punished, while John manages to escape the carnival by choosing to no longer grieve. Lucifer sends him straight up to Heaven, which in this film is personified as a toy shop where God (Paul Sorvino) is painting dolls and as he makes mistakes crafting the dolls, he throws them into a bin that says "broken," which represents the souls falling into "The Devil's Carnival." Allowing John to escape Hell is a direct violation of one of the 666 rules that the denizens of The Devil's Carnival have to follow, and the film ends with Lucifer declaring that the rules of Hell are changing. One of the most memorable lines in this part is "We're going to put Heaven out of Business."
**SPOILER END**
I thought that the story itself was extremely interesting, and clever that it was rooted in Aesop's Fables. The actors each did extremely well in portraying their respective characters...Every carnival character was so varied and distinct.
The music was wonderful as well. Whereas "Repo!" had a handful of songs that were extremely strong with some not so great numbers, "The Devil's Carnival" boasts a strong soundtrack throughout. My personal favorites are "In All My Dreams I Drown" and "Trust Me".
Overall, I feel this movie really is a must see. I have no clue when it's going to be released on DVD, but the filmmakers are currently taking the film on a tour around the country and doing a Q&A session after the screening. I attended the Los Angeles premiere and must say that it was worth driving down from Vegas. Terrance and Darren also revealed some nuggets of information about the next film in the series. They said that it will take place on a train and it will look at the carnival characters in Heaven's carnival. It sounds incredibly interesting and hopefully the interest in this movie will be strong enough to warrant a sequel.
GO SEE THE DAMN MOVIE!