Film Review: CARNAGE PARK (2016)

Mickey Keating has made a career of crafting some tense thriller films about a limited cast trapped in harrowing circumstances such as Ritual (2013), Darling (2015), and Pod (2015), to name a few so it is with no surprise that he continues this trend in CARNAGE PARK (2016).  Vivian Fontaine (Ashley Bell) is having a bad day.  While she is trying to get a bank loan, two thieves rob the bank and take her hostage after the robbery gets botched and one of them is mortally injured. 

During the getaway the bank robbers find their way to an abandoned road where they try to plan their next mood.  One of them dies from their fatal wounds while the other decides to keep Vivian as insurance.  Vivian’s situation seems bright at first when a shot rings out of the air and kills the final robber but the man responsible is a deranged ex-military sniper who doesn’t take too kindly to people who trespass on his land no matter what reasons.  Vivian then finds herself as prey to the sniper as she is now trapped on an open range where there are few places to hide and there are more horrors in store the deeper she explores.

Bell does an amazing job carrying the film while Pat Healy is the psychotic killer Wyatt Moss.  Bell continues to make interesting choices as an actress and constantly surprises.  I particularly love her performance as Nell Sweetzer in The Last Exorcism (2010) and The Last Exorcism Part II (2013) as well as The Day (2011).  The film itself is just okay as Keating knows how to stage some suspenseful scenes but it just doesn’t intrigue as much as some of his previous films. 

Film Review: POD (2015)

Martin (Brian Morvant) is out hunting with his dog when he encounters something in the woods that kills his dog.  He isn’t given much time to be shocked as something out of the woods attacks him and thus begins Pod (2015).  

 

Ed (Dean Cates) and his sister Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter) decide to go to their brother Martin’s house because Ed got a cryptic message from him.  Ed believes that his brother is in trouble and that it’s time for another intervention but when they get there they realize that Martin has completely shut himself in his house and has someone or something locked up in the basement.  As Ed and Lyla try to bring reason to Martin’s crumbling world they start to see and experience things that are abnormal and have them believing that Martin may not be as crazy as he first seemed and the thing in the basement is something unlike anything they’ve ever encountered before.

Written and directed by Mickey Keating, Pod is an interesting concept built around a family intervention and a possible alien and sci-fi premise.  The problem is that it’s just not an interesting film which is surprising considering that it comes from the Larry Fessenden camp who is reliable with indie horror films (he makes an appearance in this film as well).  The problem with the film is that the characters just aren’t interesting, which is a problem with a film that relies on its three main characters to carry the whole thing.  The biggest travesty is that Carter is under used in this film.  She’s such a commanding presence in The Woman (2011) and Jug Face (2013) that it’s a shame all she does in this film is wine and cry and play scared throughout the entire running time.  

Pod is a film that had potential but instead ends up a mediocre time waster of which you will have seen better.