Malatesta's Carnival of Blood

After waiting for 30 years I have finally been able to see this movie! Other people who read my earlier entreaty finally contacted me and told me where to look. Lo and Behold I found out I could order a copy on DVD . ..and so I did. I have just finished watching it. Was it worth the wait? YES. The action takes place around a carnival that sometimes appears brand new and at other times looks like a wreck. You have to pay close attention if you want to know why; in a single throwaway line we are told "It's all an illusion." The movie becomes an exercise in existentialism very quickly. The carnival is built over a sulfur spring and the workers there are all cannibals because "No one ever told them eating human flesh was bad." Many of them have never seen sunlight in all their lives, however long that might be. They are also movie buffs who enjoy watching things like THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925), THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) in between snacking. The manager, the aptly named Mr. Blood, is a vampire and Mr. Malatesta is a . . .well . . .he might be a ghoul, he might be a wizard . . .that is one of the many things we must wonder about. The one "normal" family who comes to work there is questionable too. Dad seems to know something is wrong about the place and asserts "If anything happens I'll have my revenge." while checking his snub nose .38 to make certain it's loaded. Has he come to get even for some earlier victim? That is something else we never learn. I could easily say the shortage of gore is a weak point but remember this was made in 1973 before audiences were really used to loads of graphic gore in their movies. There was enough here to satisfy audiences of the time I think. A quick decapitation, an eye puncturing and the ghouls snacking on the flesh of a still living victim! Okay, I was not satisfied with the ending and I probably would not have been even if I had seen the movie when it was brand new but still I was not disappointed! Performances are all good, effects are . .. well . . . adequate, editing is effective at times and frustrating at others (fadeouts are happening constantly!). Is MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD worth seeing? Yes! The movie is out on DVD now but who knows how long it will be on the market. Get your ticket for this carnival now!

Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Malatesta (Daniel Dietrich) runs a fun carnival where he hired a couple people to help run the place. What Malatesta doesn't realize is that the two people are basically working undercover because they're searching for their child that went missing at the carnival. What the parents don't realize is all the sinister things going on there including the fact that Malatesta is a vampire.

MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD is the only film from director Christopher Speeth and it was pretty much forgotten and never seen for thirty-years. All of this changed when the director started selling copies of a DVD from his personal website. Before long the film gained a small reputation but then Arrow Video released it to Blu-ray and DVD in a Special Edition form. As the introduction by Stephen Thrower states, it's a pretty weird little film and certainly one that deserves more of a following.

If you're looking for a coherent storyline then you probably won't enjoy this movie. There's actually very little of an actual plot and instead the film really plays off like a dream you might be having while you're also running a very high fever. Some have called the film's look psychedelic, which might be a good way to describe it. The story is basically being told by the visuals, which are actually quite striking and I'd argue that the dream-like nature of the picture actually works for it. The entertainment value certainly comes from the bizarre and surreal atmosphere.

The performances are a bit all over the place with some of them being incredibly good while others are clearly being done by inexperienced actors. Still, none of them are bad enough to ruin the film. There's also an effective music score that helps build up the atmosphere and there are some really nice gore effects throughout the picture. There's not a lot of violence but when it does happen with get some of that classic 70's overly-bright red blood.

MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD isn't the greatest film ever made and there are certainly some flaws throughout it including some pacing issues. Still, at just 74-minutes the film is certainly worth watching and it's bizarre and surreal atmosphere really makes it stand out.

The horror films I enjoy usually fall into one of two categories: excellently made, or not well-made but still enjoyable in a trashy or kitschy way. This is a rare example that straddles the line between the two.

The film was obviously made with very little budget and by people with only minimal experience in film. But the cast and crew still had experience in the art world. They had good ideas. They knew how much a movie could be driven by its aesthetics.

To start with the negatives: the pacing is off, the acting is sometimes amateurish, and while the dialogue is okay, the script is hard to follow. You don't walk away understanding much regarding character motivation, or how action A led to consequence B.

But those are secondary concerns if a film is pleasurable overall, which this one is. The framing and lighting are disquieting throughout, with some dream-like scenes producing eerie effects that I've never quite seen before. Certain images--such as a closeup to a distorted view of the main girl's head wrapped in plastic, or a tracking shot of a bleeding man being slung across a ceiling in some kind of otherwise purposeless contraption--will haunt the view regardless of whether or not she could follow the plot.

The film's strongest aspect is probably its sound effects and minimalist score, which a blu-ray extra explains were made by a duo consisting of the director's older brother and a man who had been a military audiologist (seriously). The "weaponized" sound effects overcame technical limitations to produce a simulacra of bass-heavy "fear notes," the likes of which were copied and stolen by hundreds of horror pictures.

Overall, I'd consider this an important film if it were more well-known. I'm not exactly a horror buff, but I'm somewhat knowledgeable and I'd never heard of it until it was released on Blu Ray by Arrow Films (it's not even mentioned in the Psychotronic Video Guide). But its effects upon trash and horror cinema are palpable, and it's plenty enjoyable for anyone who has a moderate interest in such films.

"Malatesta's Carnival of Blood" follows a husband, wife, and their young adult daughter who visit a rundown amusement park posing as potential new employees; they are actually there to locate their missing son, who worked at the carnival. To their horror, however, the park's mysterious proprietor, Malatesta, is hiding a gaggle of cannibals in caverns beneath the rides.

This little-seen horror flick plays like "Alice in Wonderland" on bad acid, but in a good way. It is remarkably low-budget, with sets that often appear to be vinyl-lined tents standing in as limestone caves (unconvincing, to say the least), but the shortcomings oddly don't seem to matter because they are obscured by the stylish cinematography and general atmosphere of complete and utter weirdness.

In similar fashion, the screenplay for "Malatesta's Carnival of Blood" is also a slipshod effort, with little connective tissue to make sense of what exactly is going on (even the main characters' arrival at the carnival is barely elucidated, making it somewhat confusing as to why they are there in the first place)--and yet again, it doesn't really matter, because the film is more a mood piece than anything. Surreal visuals reign supreme, with creepy carnival props, underground halls of mirrors, silent movie theaters where the cannibal ghouls congregate to watch movies(!?)--the weirdness never ceases.

The film's main character, Vena, leads the audience through the proceedings as she spends a hellish night in the amusement park searching for her missing brother, and the proceedings have an "Alice in Wonderland" sensibility about them. The actual nature of the villains here is also not totally explained, but their ghoulish appearance in slathered-on grey makeup manages to be effectively captured in the claustrophobic cinematography. In the end, the film doesn't really register as a narrative piece, but it succeeds magnificently as an otherworldly, nightmarish adventure that resembles a bad trip. 7/10.

Malatesta's carnival of blood welcomes its guests with cannibalistic ghouls and blood-sucking vampires.It's weird and very loosely narrated assault on the viewer's senses.The sets and images are gloriously surreal,the atmosphere is dreamy and there is a nice amount of blood as we see the ghouls devouring its human prey.The action is fast and there are some truly odd characters for example Malatesta,a creepy dwarf named Bobo with his annoying French accent,psychotic Mr.Blood and a transvestite fortune teller.If you liked Frederick Hobbs movies or "Death Bed:The Bed that Eats" check out "Malatesta's Carnival of Blood".8 out of 10.A surreal treat of epic proportions!