Watch Carver For Free

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

the audience applauded

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

There's very little territory to mine in the "mad slasher" genre...it was all done in the 80's, re-done in the 90's and has been "retro" done again ever since. A recent trend has been to drop the pretense of any "mystery" about who the killer is or what he/she wants and just aim directly for the nearest artery, and open it...on screen, with an unflinching camera. This has resulted in scads of thoroughly unpleasant low budget shocker flicks commonly labeled "torture porn." The genre itself is nothing new...Herschell Gordon Lewis mined the viscera field until there was nary an eyeball left to be stepped on in the late 60's. The 70's are ripe with truly unpleasant, mean-spirited, ugly little films that exist solely for lovers of human suffering and unrelenting grue to whack their puds to. And then of course there are "motion pictures" like the "guinea pig" series from Japan that take things to the furthest extremes imaginable...just because someone had to do it.Somewhere in the middle of all this is an efficient little direct-to-the-home-market piece of sludge called "Carver" that I found exceptional for a number of reasons. I resisted it at first...as I have grown up I'm no longer as interested in watching people suffer as I was as a teenager glued to pay-cable. But, like many fans I know, I'm always looking for something a little different than what the genre usually offers. By the time I saw this one I already knew about the infamous "outhouse scene" and was prepared for the worst. What I didn't expect was that the scene in question, and pretty much all the splatter, was the least interesting thing to me in the movie. I've found myself watching it on "Crackle" in its edited/censored form while doing other things around my place, because it makes good background distraction. Huh? My suspicion is that Franklin Guerrero Jr. is actually a competent and enthusiastic film director who is aware of the time-honored tradition of breaking into professional film directing via the low-budget genre. And as such, he also knows that the bar MUST be raised in order for a film to get noticed. So make a film that ups the ante on the disgust-o-meter and you're likely to at LEAST get a chance to make another film, as it seems Guerrero has done. "Carver" is nothing new, in fact it's old as the hills: stupid kids make the "mistake" of camping in a place where there's a vicious killer who then proceeds to kill them on-screen for, essentially, our edification. "Carver" adds a clever twist by incorporating the idea of voyeurism-via-film as part of the killer's motive, but that is, of course, beside the point. The "point" is blood, and much blood is spilled and yes, it is rather satisfying in a visceral, sick way when a film doesn't hold back (and the effects are reasonably well done). It IS disgusting, but as Helen Mirren said of her role in "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover," "It's all theater, darling..."But kudos to the stunningly attractive Ursula Taherian, who seems to be a very credible actress and deserves more work, beyond low budget horror. Cheers also to Neil Kubath--the director was smart to have him carry the film...he's got an interesting face that wears a look of confused disgust with the world around him that I know very well from having had a similar little brother myself. His delivery is unusual and his position in the movie perplexing (he's not a hero, not an anti-hero, he simply exists, until he doesn't anymore). But the presence of Kubath, Taherian and some of the others, the gore and the premise (and yes, That Scene) anchor what would otherwise be an utterly forgettable entry into the genre and make this one, in fact, at least to this viewer, rather memorable.

Friends, on a camping trip in some backwoods area off the beaten path, fall prey to a sadistic wacko hillbilly in overalls who likes to record his handiwork so that he can enjoy future viewings on his projector. There's a twist at the end(..it's HAND HELD!)that won't surprise anyone unless you are the most naive dolt on the planet.The killer, Bobby Shaw(Erik Fones), assaults his victims with a number of tools and the results are often unpleasant. One victim's head is taken off at the neck by a hacksaw. One victim is trapped in an outhouse, his leg smashed with a toilet;it's hinted that Shaw used a wrench to castrate him. One victim is pummeled several times with a sledgehammer. One is stabbed multiple times. One victim has nails hammered into her leg and forehead. And, there's still room for a hacksaw to be buried into the face of a victim, while another's eye is gouged in by a hook. Shaw's older brother runs a beer joint and seems a bit off himself. There's no real style and the violence is carefully executed with director Franklin Guerrero Jr.(..who also wrote this)often cutting away perhaps due to budget restraints. Oh, there's still plenty of blood shed, don't get me wrong, but Guerrero Jr. relies on what we imagine as much as what is presented on screen. For instance, a victim blows her brains out with a shot gun..not seen, but we get the general idea, although the decision to do so, even if your friend was murdered, seems a bit odd. Another scene has Shaw finishing off a victim he had been punishing with the sledgehammer, with a face crushing that's never visible either. This is a common occurrence that infuriates slasher fans, but the film is presented in such a cold, mean-spirited manner(..the way real killers work)that I wonder if the audience would enjoy CARVER anyway, perhaps they would. It's fairly obvious from the production values that the movie was low budgeted, and I never felt Franklin Guerrero Jr. was skilled enough to rise above his limitations. Others might think otherwise, but CARVER, to me, never rises above the countless direct-to-video slasher clones..it's just this one is about a cold-blooded, deranged killer hunting folks in some godforsaken warehouse in the backwoods of rural America. I would go into detail regarding the cast but they all support the film as lambs to the slaughter, nothing more or less. Sick, ugly film that will fade from memory I think not long after you watch it.

The opening scene with the big bubba sawing a woman's neck told me that this was not going to be an easy flick.It is typical of those like Wrong Turn and Texas chainsaw Massacre, where city folks get off the main road and come into the web of some backwoods maniac (Erik Fones).They agree to move some furniture and find what they think are old slasher films. "Wait for it...Wait for it...Oh! Boobies!" However, they were more than they bargained for.It has some nice twists, plenty of cringe-inducing gore, and an original ending.Featuring Kristyn Green from "The Starter Wife," who gets hammered and pukes on Pete (Carmody), (or was that pukes on Pete and gets hammered by the maniac?); and Ursula Taherian, who may just be someone to keep an eye on. Supporting performances by Savannah Costello as the "naked dead girl," and Leslie Ann Valenza as the "8mm movie heroine." The main characters, including Matt Carmody, did a great job with some good dialog and a fair, if familiar, story.

Lots of blood, lots of gore and no storyline, that sums up Carver. Some movies try to be so shocking they comprise the plot, this is one such film. Carver is neither original, nor groundbreaking; I have seen torture done far too often now days, from Flower of Flesh and Blood to Hostel this upcoming genre has become main stream in my eyes. Carver claims to be based on a true story, which tells a tale about five unlikable yuppies that embark on a camping trip and end up disappearing. Well, actually we see them get horrible mutilated, dismembered and decapitated one by one with no motive. Carver delivers a plethora of scenes that contain blood and torture done extremely believable. The camera work is excellent and the acting is passable, but there is no reason to watch this movie other then to be shocked and regardless of what you hear, there is no twist ending.My recommendation is to rent Carver first because I think most will watch it only once.