Somewhere along the decades of horror films, the audience has had the opportunity to witness objects coming to life and portraying murder in unimaginable ways. Maybe we really are better as a society for this. This time, it’s Justin Harding’s Carved which falls under that obscure yet electrifying category. I promise it is the most fun you will have with an autonomous gourd this age. Carved is an outstanding and humorous parody of ‘80s horror that handles as much as being a horror film as it is a comedy. It was only after hearing about Carved did I realize that I never thought I needed a pumpkin slashing people.
Carved proceeds in the following manner;
In this amusing movie, a mutant pumpkin comes to life to burn down the Teoville players due to their past actions. It then proceeds to whoop people’s ass while ghosting them. Except for one person sounds sadistic enough to stand against the killer fruit. The remaining cast members devise extremely creative strategies that combine fast-paced actions to combat the killer fruit’s jaded disorder.
The intricacies of the plot are not really that nuanced to begin with and the filmmakers definitely didn’t make any attempt to hide the charm of their work. Carved is yet another posting in the category of parodies towards classic B movies.
Although CGI effects were combined with practicals, the monstrous pumpkin has the ability to stalk its prey and kill without seeming to lose the proper aura of terror. Let’s not kid ourselves, the killer pumpkin is not something that will haunt the nightmares of seasoned horror fans, but I literarily threw myself into the central conceit and was quite disturbed. That’s a testament to director Justin Harding in terms of creating the immersion.
Harding employs them to the fullest extent in order to depict the killer gourd as being as creepy as possible. His straight out tropical horror picture may not reach the level of doting that you would come to expect from an engaging villain. Nonetheless, Carved makes the most of a ridiculous premise.
The killer pumpkin is hardly an institution when it comes to making the movie scary as it may invoke laughter and of course wit. I love the way Harding gives the cutie pie the fruit an ego. It sounds very weird to say so. But you’ll get what I mean when you seek out the film just recently posted on Hulu following a showing at Vancouver Horror Show.
Harding is exactly the type of director who can plagiarize horror and sew in comedy great.
Many gore comedies out there manage to be funny or to be scary. But way out in the Carved, it is able to do both all the time. Ans so there were quite a number of times when I felt both jumping and resting in laughter simultaneously. To have an audience perform one of those is big deal. To have an audience perform both of those simultaneously is a total wow. We all know that horror and comedy make an odd couple for sure, so it gives me extra satisfaction to witness the ability of a filmmaker to balance them both so they become more of an assist than a hassle.
Harding takes this idea one step further by also pushing comedic boundaries in addition to horror boundaries. He fully supports the TVMA rating and brings us back to the films of the 80s and 90s. I lost count of the number of dismembering heads, there was an abundance of cursing as well. It is refreshing to see a distributor take commercial risks. One can only hope that the trend catches on to them sharing it with the theatrical horrors possessing similar characteristics.
Carved is a cinematic rendition by horror lovers for the people who enjoy horror.
Raising the interest in the topic – it is necessary to notice, that Harding and his company are fans of the genre. It’s almost an inarguable fact – there is a year’s worth of thematic references to horror pictures that came before them. The creative team behind Carved is able to walk the fine line of using said references as a base and build upon it in such a way that they might attract the future filmmakers.
All these horrifically satisfying effects that we are treated to in the movie is yet another indicator that Harding and the people he worked with are fans of the genre. It seems to be a composite of physical and CG creature. Admittedly, the VFX do not always have the check-this-out factor of the practical effects, but combining them did produce a killer monster. A monster that seems to be an offspring of a young Sam Raimi. The rough edges of the pumpkin are held with tentacles that seem to resemble one of the predatory vines in Evil Dead that are not hard to miss in Raimi’s films.
Putting everything in perspective:
Having all that in mind; carved is a rather interesting film, slightly gory, and often-times outrageous for a holiday special. I took a look at the flick during the Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival. Personally, I think that you could do much worse than watch it on Hulu which as of today is where it can be spotted. And I highly encourage you to do so, dear reader.
For more movies visit 123Movies.