Andy "Acquired Taste" Milligan has a beautiful setting for this haunted house thriller- his own home. The rest of the film? Lousy.
Married couple Carol (Leslie Den Dooven) and Johnathan (Michael Chiodo) get a creaky old house with all the furnishings very cheap, not knowing that three years prior, the original owners Susan (Deeann Veeder) and Mark (Chris Georges) had committed suicide there in the film's opening minutes. Strange things begin to happen as items are moved around and misplaced, harmless things until Carol is cut by a kitchen knife. Soon, the ghosts begin killing people who enter the house.
Unlike the other Milligan films I have seen in the past ("Bloodthirsty Butchers," "The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here!"), "Carnage" is unforgivably BORING. The bad filmmaking is something to behold, as you hear the floors creak, see string tied around objects so they can move "on their own," and marvel at the terrible performances and insipid screenplay (all these killings and blood, yet not a single cop is called?). Supporting characters are introduced with no idea about who they are in relation to the main couple. One actress has her hair up in a towel for her introductory scene, so I didn't recognize her later once she was dressed. Check out the flabby guy who needs to take a waterless bath in his underwear, twice, before dying. The climax makes no sense whatsoever, I'd normally suggest a remake using the basic plot but this story has been done a million times before, and better. Some of the blood-spurting gore is alright.
According to the Trivia section on IMDb, the house this was shot in burned down shortly after production. That's a shame, it was the star of the film.
Stats:
(1984) 91 min. (2/10)
-Written and Directed by Andy Milligan
-Cast: Leslie Den Dooven, Michael Chiodo, Deeann Veeder, Chris Georges, Ellen Orchid, Lon Freeman, Joseph Vitagliano, Bill Grant, Judith Mayes, Che Moody, Chris Baker, John Garritt, Lola Ross
Not Rated- contains physical violence, brief gun violence, gore, mild profanity, adult situations, alcohol use
