Carver (2007)
Studio: Allumination
DVD Release Date: March 4 2008
Directed By: Franklin Guerrero Jr.
Cast: Matt Carmody, Neil Kubath, Kristyn Green, David G. Holland, Jonathan Rockett, Ursala Taherian
Brutal As Hell Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review By: Marc Patterson

To some a slasher film is a nothing more than a quick cheap thrill, and you will never convince them otherwise.  To others nothing beats a good old fashioned blood soaked gore fest, even if the plot line is the same tired rhetoric that’s been grind out for the past thirty years.  Enter Carver, an above average effort put together by a clearly competent director that ultimately does little to distinguish itself from the hundreds upon hundreds of other slashers sitting on dusty video rental shelves.  Not that this is a bad thing.

Carver gathers together our staple group of college age co-eds, drops them in the woods for a weekend camping getaway, and then piles on a few quintessential southern redneck good-ol-boy psychopaths.  Let the games begin.  

Our typically unlikeable teens stop by a roadside restaurant that lies nearby their campground.  The barkeep, (one of the aforementioned good-ol-boys) asks them for some help in moving supplies in exchange for a night of free drinks.  How could one possibly resist free booze?  The thing is that the supplies lie in an old barn up in the woods, but “within eyeshot” of their camping site.  While up in the old barn the kids discover reels of video and decide to take a gander before transporting said supplies back to the restaurant.  The reels are graphically violent murder sequences, which they naturally laugh off as simply cheap homemade horror films.  Oh, how naïve.  Well, it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the rest of the story.   

Carver plays out well on a couple levels.  First, it distinguishes itself with a singular scene of violence that involves pliers and a testicle.  I’ll say no more.  Beyond that it does well in keeping the blood flowing throughout and displays clever invention with nearly all the grisly murder set pieces. 

Second, the film solidly ties itself to the age-old genre staples, especially typifying the “final girl” replete with white gown, while at the same time making a move towards the final scenes of the movie to set itself apart.  It effectively shows that the new breed of slasher film can make and break the old rules at will.  This was refreshing and provided a pleasant, if nasty, surprise at the climax.   

While Carver certainly can’t compete with bigger budget pieces such as Hostel, it does a fine job staying true to the genre, and lighting up the screen with plenty of blood and guts.  But, it does so almost to the point of repetitive boredom.  If this film was made in the eighties it would no doubt have managed to be dubbed a genre classic alongside Prom Night and Sleepaway Camp.  However, this isn’t the eighties and while this film will provide an ample evening of fun, it’s unlikely to make its way into many collections, or be remembered in a few years from now. 

Carver is an entertaining slasher flick that is no doubt worth the rental, but not much more.  And, if you’re not whistling a little “Turkey in the Straw” by the time the credits roll, then what the hell have you even been reading this review for?