Carny (2009)

Review by Tim-O



Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips
Directed by Sheldon Wilson

I've been disappointed by about every SciFi Channel Original movie that I've seen. They're full of cardboard characters, awful dialogue, terrible CGI effects and ZERO suspense. I try to avoid them as much as possible but sometimes the temptation is irresistible and I'm fooled into wasting 90 minutes watching a CGI saber tooth tiger chasing John Rhys Davies around. (or something like that) That being said, I'm going to give the ScyFy Original movie,"Carny", the highest honor I can bestow on a "SciFi Original"... a mild recommendation(!)

First off, here's a synopsis of the film lifted from the "Carny" Netflix page: 'Arriving in rural Nebraska, a traveling carnival attracts the locals with a caged monster known as the Jersey Devil. But fascination soon turns to fear when the beast escapes and goes on a rampage, killing everyone it encounters. Now, the town sheriff (Lou Diamond Phillips) must lead a team to track the creature even as a group of religious fundamentalists forms a lynch mob to kill the beast they believe is the devil himself.

Yep, that's pretty much the movie in a nutshell. O.K., I admit being fascinated by crypto-zoology which is what sucked me into giving this flick a chance. I tend to watch anything involving The Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, Chupacabra, etc. As you can imagine, I've suffered greatly for this over the years with an endless parade of crappy movies that insult the intelligence of anyone who dares watch them. What's different about "Carny" is that it has a 1980's monster movie charm, surprisingly developed characters, excellent camera work, and decent acting that elevate "Carny" above the rest of the typical junky TV movies. The monster is a mix of CGI and practical puppetry F/X but is mostly CGI. It isn't the most convincing CGI work but for a SciFi Channel(or whatever they call it today) movie the F/X are outstanding. (Remember, I said," for a SciFi Cannel movie.") Lou Diamond Phillips heads a cast that may not have taken the movie seriously but obviously take their craft seriously. There is some really good acting that I didn't expect...even from Lou Diamond Phillips. The story is more involved than I expected, too. This is one of those movies that is more about the characters than the monster. I actually found the characters interesting enough to make this work. The movie isn’t scary but it’s at least mildly entertaining. It even has a more downbeat ending which is rare for any made for TV movie.

"Carny" isn't a cinematic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. For the SciFi Channel however, it's a winner. The script and the production values seem slightly better than most of the movies that they endlessly churn out. The film is better than a lot of bigger theatrical releases and passes my main test when critiquing any movie; It isn't boring. I wouldn't run out and buy "Carny" but I feel it's worth a rent if you're not sure what you want to watch. I streamed it from Netflix and can safely say that that's definitely worth doing. If you want to watch a truly scary carnival based horror film, try Tobe Hooper’s underrated cult classic, “The Funhouse”, instead. 5/10.