Artistic no-budget flick shot at a near defunct carnival north of Philly
Shot in late 1970, but not released until the spring of 1973, this indie combines elements of “Carnival of Souls” and “Night of the Living Dead” with bits reminiscent of “The Mansion of Madness,” aka "Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon.”
There is a sense of low-budget macabre artistry with the amusement park “in its death throes” being the highlight, but the characters aren’t fleshed out and so the story becomes tedious. Furthermore, plain Jane Janine Carazo is serviceable as Vena, but the production needed someone more alluring to keep the viewer’s attention. The later "Closed for the Season" (2010) was shot at Chippewa Lake Park in northeast Ohio and had the same deficiencies.
A decent indie of this sort is "Scream Park" (2012), which was shot at the old Conneaut Lake Park on the other side of Pennsylvania. "SideShow" (2000) is also worth checking out. The best examples of the genre include “Circus of Horrors” (1960) and “The Funhouse” (1981), which had way more money with which to play.
It runs 1h 14m and was shot in Willow Grove, a suburb north of Philadelphia. The carnival basement sequences were done a dozen miles south in Germantown whereas the scenes of Vena running in the woods were filmed across the border in The Pine Barrens of New Jersey, which is about 45 miles to the east.
GRADE: C/C-
