Carver: Unrated – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

carver
Available at Amazon.com

It’s that time of year when college kids head off on random trips to the beach, foreign countries, or just out into the woods for a good old camping trip. Kids like their privacy, though, if they don’t happen to be involved with one huge party including hundreds of people. Those times when they just want to be alone with their friends is when they’ll wander off the beaten path and head out into the wilderness where no one can find them. Sometimes though, that isn’t necessarily the best idea because no matter where you end up, someone else has been there before. And chances are, they’re still around.

A group of kids are doing just that and end up out in the woods just looking for a good place to spend a few days. Along the way they stumble across this restaurant/bar where the manager notices they are nothing but a fun-loving group. He asks a favor of them and agrees to pay them for their work if they’ll help him out. He even offers to pay for their night of drinks, which is all the encouragement they need. While lugging some stuff around for the old fella though, the group finds some old home movies and decides to take a look. Stumbling upon what they believe to be bad attempts at horror film making, they have no idea that they’re the stars of the next film and the killings they saw were real.

If you’ve seen it once, then you’ve seen it a thousand times. The only things that Carver does decently enough is the kill scenes and making good use of a low budget. I say good use of a low budget because they obviously had very little in way of funds since it is direct-to-DVD and hardly anyone has ever heard of it before. Still, the kills are very well done and things look actually very decent in way of gore and overall blood and guts. Most everything else left plenty to be desired.

This film seems to be a mixture of Hostel, Wrong Turn, and The Hills Have Eyes to be honest with you. It is a “torture film” complete with hillbillies and country bumpkins that are as close to mutants as you can get. Everything is incredibly predictable and the script leaves so much to be desired that letting it go on for one hundred minutes was truly stretching it. Carver isn’t the worst crappy horror film I’ve ever seen, but it’s not one I’d recommend either because you’ve probably already seen it under a different name and bigger budget.

The film is shown in 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and as I was saying earlier, it looks really good. They found some decent locations with plenty or good coloring that was kept alive in the blood and guts. The darker scenes are never too black and everything can be seen nicely. Can’t help but constantly feel though like the whole film was shot with a handheld.

The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it is okay. Not much for creepy surroundings and all that, but you’ll get screams galore and just about anything else you could ask for in a film that isn’t filled with tensions but straight up killing.

Audio Commentaries – The first track is with director Franklin Guerrero Jr. and producer Richard Finney, while the second track has Guerrero and producer Eric Wilford. Both are rather similar, actually, with all three talking about the production and what happens on the screen at the given moment. Honestly not worth watching the film two more times for.

Deleted Scenes – Four deleted scenes not showing much of anything.

Behind The Scenes – In a somewhat bit of a surprise, this fourteen minute feature which isn’t advertised on the DVD case as being included, shows your basic “making of” stuff. The cast and crew talk about making the film while we see it being shot. Whoopty-doo.

Unrated Trailer

TrailersBone Dry, HACK!, The Attic, The Unknown Trilogy, and Night Junkies

I just can’t find any reason to really recommend buying this DVD or even really renting it. Carver does one other thing besides those I’ve already mentioned, and it proceeds to be graphic. You know how the After Dark HorrorFest keeps proclaiming to show “the films horror movies no longer are, and other studios are afraid to show?” Well, Carver would have fit nicely into that mold. One scene in particular will make any guy squirm in his seat and a few girls might even just look directly at their men and say, “God, I’m so sorry.” Still, that’s not motivation enough to check out a film you can find done better and more entertaining under a number of other titles. The special features don’t help the cause either since you’d have to watch Carver twice more to get the most out of them. Ugh…gag me with a spoon which is almost what happened during a rather disgusting scene involving a toilet and its contents. Excuse me; while thinking about it I just threw up in my mouth…a lot.

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Allumination presents Carver: Unrated. Directed by: Franklin Guerrero, Jr.. Starring: Matt Carmody, Kristyn Green, Neil Kubath, Ursula Taherian, Jonathan Rockett, Erik Fones, David G. Holland. Written by: Franklin Guerrero, Jr.. Running time: 100 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on DVD: March 4, 2008. Available at Amazon.com