Carny: The Jersey Devil expresses it's opinion of small towns
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 5:00AM 
Freaks in a small town...And then there
I was very surprised that I didn't outright hate Carny. I thought for sure from the previews it would be nothing but gore and entrails. Yes, there is a lot of blood, but there's a lot of great Jersey Devil shots, and some interesting character studies on small towns and carny folk. It's not going to be a classic or anything, but at least it was more substantial than a lot of creature features I've sat through.
It starts off with some poor schmuck who has inexplicably managed to capture a horrific beast, and is delivering it for cash to a creepy carnival owner and his sidekick. The carny owner is planning to sell the beast to yet another person, but not before showing it off in the next town for some cheap thrills and fast cash. Unfortunately for the poor schmuck who survived capturing the monster, he turns his back on the carny owner to count his cash, and ends up being a discovered body later in the flick.
We flash to the small town where the poor schmuck's truck is being towed in and investigated. The plates are from Jersey, so there aren't any obvious clues. Once again Lou Diamond Phillips plays a charismatic sheriff, and even though it's a role he's played several times before, I don't get tired of it. His character is smart enough to have his deputy run interference between himself and the resident brimstone and fire preacher who rants and raves against the sinful carnival coming to town, all the whole ignoring the fact his own son is embracing the path to hell, and taking a nice kid with him. It's hard to like this preacher, and you're not meant to, especially when he later stirs the townsfolk up and urges them to burn the carnival, and the innocent, albeit freakish, people and their homes to the ground.
The sheriff ventures over to the carnival to check out the people, make sure the permits are all in order, and to get a sneak peak at the newest attraction, The Jersey Devil. I can't imagine any sheriff taking the sight of such a creature, no matter how strong that cage is, with as much aplomb as this town's sheriff does. Meanwhile we meet the carnival's psychic who sees all sorts of death and destruction in our good sheriff's future.
Never mind all the character setup, which is done admirably well for this type of movie. We're here to see lots of the Jersey Devil, and we're not disappointed. The creature breaks out very quickly into the movie, all because the preacher's son is a snot who won't stop taunting it by throwing popcorn at it. The beastie flies around snacking and chomping on any character unwise enough to be out in the open, or, well, still in town. The CGI is well done, and much better than what I recently saw on a Monster Quest episode about this same beastie.
The plot goes a bit sideways once the beast escapes. The psychic is ready to flee, but convinced to stay just so she can do a reading about how the carny owner can stop it (so he can still sell it off). She gives a cryptic reading which never pans out. The carny owner goes on to do even more despicable things, only to end up in a confrontation first with the vengeful preacher, and then with the Jersey Devil. The plan to sell the beast is conveniently buried under more bodies.
The ending came this close to leaving me satisfied with this movie. Then it did something some B-movies have been doing lately, which really ticks me off. It went off-formula and killed off a character who shouldn't have died, and did it for no good reason. I like my B-movies to stick with the plan, and not try to be more than they are by being 'different'. It's a big letdown after a triumphant battle, and needlessly depressing. I shouldn't be bummed after watching a movie like Carny!
This is a movie I had a hard time finding out anything about on the internet. Because of it's dismal ending, I'm just going to stop my search right...about...here.
Reader Comments (1)
Boo-ooooo! Boo to TPTB who decided on the ending of this flick! I tolerated this film from the beginning and without not letting anything go, I was highly upset by the the film and it's ending!!!!
Okay, I understand being different but it ended up senseless especially with the blood and so-called 'guts'.
I expected much better from the SciFi Channel. Entirely much better!
Boooooooo!