Carnage: The Legend of Quiltface

aka Carnage Road

Director - Massimiliano Cerchi (Holy Terror, Plankton)

Starring - Dean Paul (Dr. Horror's Erotic House of Idiots), Molinee Dawn, and Sean Wing (Hipster Holocaust)

Release Date - 2000

Genre - Horror

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Killer 4 Pack) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     A week or so ago I brought you beautiful people reviews for the horrible films Jezebeth and The Day of the Dead.  Both films were a huge let down that forced me to take a break from writing reviews to check out The Naked Gun and The Naked Gun 2 1/2 on Netflix.  When I finally returned to my reviews I decided to check out the short Devil's Work before returning to the Killer 4 Pack.  The next film in the set is Carnage: The Legend of Quiltface.  This is a film I was very familiar with but I had never seen it.  Sometime in 2013 I found the film Plankton on DVD and realized that the director, Massimilano Cerchi, was actually on my friends list.  I did a little looking and discovered that he had directed several other films including this one.  I was a little excited to see this one because I really enjoyed Plankton.
     The film follows a group of photography students as they head out to the desert to work on a project.  They are dropped off by the driver who will return to pick them up at a certain time.  While they are wondering through the desert they start to tell stories and the legend of Quiltface comes up.  Quiltface is a man that lives in the desert where he stalks and kills those that enter.  He then cuts off their faces and stitches them together to make a mask.  They continue on their trek through the desert and come across the man behind the legend.
     Slasher films are a plenty because of that it is so easy now to throw one in and find similarities to other slashers.  So many gain inspiration from the classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th.  Very few films draw inspiration from the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  With that being said, this film is a micro-budget remake of that film and that is me giving Cerchi the benefit of the doubt because this film is strikingly similar.  The acting in this one is actually pretty solid by the entire cast.  Each cast member showed they had the talent to be on screen but they just didn't have much of a story to work with.  The story for this one is simple and one we have seen before like I said earlier.  The film is identical to TCM but all the fat had been trimmed to give the viewer a more streamlined film.  Sadly, this approach takes away all the enjoyment and makes the story so simple that is has no substance.  What we end up with is flat characters we don't like walking aimlessly while a masked man follows them.   To put it mildly, this story is boring.  Finally, the film does have a few kills but they take place off screen with minimal effects.  This is something that infuriates slasher fans.  I know this because I am an avid slasher fan and nothing turns me off more on a film than when I have the kill scenes taken away from me.  Overall, Carnage: The Legend of Quiltface is a film that gives us a story we have seen before but nowhere as good as the original story.  The film skips on the kills and delivers a very weak story.  I can not recommend this one.