Starring - Steve Rimpici (Shingles: The Movie, Easter Casket), B. Barnabei (I: Scream - A Minty Musical, The Survivors), and Aleen Isley (Head Case, A Cheesy Christmas)
Release Date - 2026
Genre - Horror/Comedy
Tagline - "It has all led to this"
Format - Streaming (Online Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
About a decade or so ago I was asked to review the indie slasher CarousHELL by director Steve Rudzinski. It's not a by the numbers slasher but it still did thing very well and is one I often referenced when I would review other films of his. Since then he has released some seriously fantastic movies ranging from family friendly holiday films to several sequels to CarousHELL. While the sequels were solid entries, they just didn't scratch that itch like the first one did. Steve recently hit me up to review his latest installment in the CarousHELL franchise with part 4. I couldn't pass up this opportunity and agreed to check it out. I want to thank Steve for sending this one over for review.
The film once again follows Duke (Rimpici) and his son Robbie (Barnabei) who looking for a little getaway so the pair can bond. They rent a cabin but learn on the ride to it that it has a tragic history. They ignore the warnings and go anyway only for Robbie to read from the Nekkomeownicon in order to speak with his late mother unleashing waves of the undead with ties to Duke and his bloody rampage.
I knew absolutely nothing about CarousHELL 4 prior to reviewing it but I never expected it to be a damn near perfect tribute to Sam Raimi's masterpiece Evil Dead II. I had just returned home from watching Evil Dead II at my local theater as part of their Flashback Cinema series when I decided to check it out which is kind of a coincidence in a way. I was not prepared for what I was about to watch and while I've always said his film Captain Z and the Terror of Leviathan was my favorite film of his, this film has surpassed it. The acting in this one is great all around. The voice acting is top notch. I couldn't imagine anyone other than Rimpici voicing Duke and Barnabei will forever be Robbie. They brought these characters to life and made them iconic. The supporting cast is solid as well with some returning faces reprising roles from previous Silver Spotlight films. They do a great job getting back into character which makes this one so much fun. The story for this one does a great job at continuing the connection between several other Silver Spotlight films while furthering the story for Duke and Robbie. It's not a return to the slasher sub-genre that I enjoyed in the first one and was hoping for but it does everything it can to surpass my expectations. The occult angle and heavy influence of Raimi's classic really caught me off guard the first time I watched it. The second rewatch while I wrote this was just as fun. I loved seeing the returning characters and how they were incorporated perfectly into the story following their horrific deaths in previous films. With that being said, the movie does get a bit repetitive with the character reveals. We really only needed a few instances of this before moving on. Finally, the film makes great use of some practical effects and a lot off make-up effects. The effects are absolutely fantastic and easily the best I've seen from Steve's films. The undead deadite things look fantastic and the deaths we do get fit the film perfectly. While it's not the goriest film I've seen, it still looked fantastic by indie movie standards. Overall, CarousHELL 4 is not the slasher follow up to Steve Rudzinski's CarousHELL that I was hoping for but it was so much fucking fun. This is a loving tribute to Evil Dead II and easily my favorite indie horror release of the year. I cannot recommend this one enough.
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