Why so much hype?

The acting in this movie is really good.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Just because your movie brings together two fairly unrelated genres doesn't mean it is free from criticism, and "The Devil's Carnival" is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.The film follows the tales of three people as they explore the titular Devil's Carnival and they replay three classic fables. An interesting set-up with a lot of potential, but the writing is so heavy-handed that the message falls flat on its face.As far as the plot is concerned there are a lot of good ideas, but watching the finished product is like a slow-motion train wreck. Nothing ends-up coming together. It doesn't matter if you have any good ideas for your movie if they aren't executed well. For example, there is this one gatekeeper-type character that keeps banging-on about "the rules" sporadically throughout the movie, but this never ends-up coming to anything and is left as one of many loose ends.Most of the actors seem to be phoning it in for most of the film, which is particularly sad because there are a few people in this movie that working their hardest at giving a good performance.All the shots are the same cookie-cutter bore: close up of the singer, cut to carnival audience, back to singer, slowly pan up from ground, repeat. This movie is "safe"--it takes no risks and gets nothing back from the audience as a result.The music all sounds the same and the lyrics are not clever nor engaging. Rocky Horror Picture Show is a masterpiece of film, and I actually feel bad for having to compare it to this nonsense. Rocky Horror was clever and energetic--Devil's Carnival is just plain boring, with immediately forgettable song-writing and lacking any "spirit" of its own."The Devil's Carnival" is a terrible movie. Good makeup and good ideas are completely overshadowed by clunky writing, samey lyrics, unremarkable songs, and terrible acting and execution. Give it a miss.

Let me start off by saying that I love musicals and that i really love horror movies. This had a higher rating than most of the other horror movies on Netflix, and today is my day off, so i figured, why not.This movie is visually stunning. It set a dark mood for the entire film, and the make up and costuming was phenomenal. The acting was good, from most of the cast. and the music was catchy. They picked people that had good voices and good acting skills. and the story is an interesting, and original one. So why the average rating? Mostly because I couldn't give a sh*t less about any of the characters. There was little to no back story behind any of the "lost souls" and nothing was really explained. This movie could have been 100 times better, and received almost a perfect score from me, if we had gotten a little more back story, and the movie had been longer. Although I do want to note that the shortness of the movie is only a problem because the characters are so underdeveloped. it's not a bad movie, but that's only because the cast, the music, and the set somewhat save it. needless to say, i don't see myself watching this one again.my other problem with this movie is that the ABUSE VICTIM was blamed for her abuse. an abusive boyfriend is not her fault, so why is she in hell? and why does the klepto get whipped? that makes really, no sense to me. all in all, this gets a 4/10 from me.

From Terrance Zdunich, creator of "Repo: The Genetic Opera", and Darren Lynn Bousman, director of the film adaptation of "Repo", as well as "Saw" II-IV comes the short film anthology "The Devil's Carnival", an insane, musical horror/comedy centering on three people who have died and ended up in Hell, where the must contend with various obstacles.This is an entertaining, yet highly flawed film.We follow John (Sean Patrick Flannery), a grieving father who committed suicide, Tamara (Jessica Lowndes) who trusts people too easily and was killed by her boyfriend, and petty thief Ms. Merrywood (Briana Evigan) whom was gunned-down presumably by police. All three awaken near the "Devil's Carnival", a twisted sideshow in Hell run by and populated by various demons, harpies and oddball characters, and of course headed by Lucifer himself. (Zdunich)Meanwhile, Lucifer reads to a young child from Aesope's Fables, narrating stories that mirror the struggles of the three main characters as they are forced into dark, deadly tests.The film is fairly simplistic and has a decent structure, and is populated by a handful of well-done musical numbers. (It is a bit of a Rock Opera, to be honest, similar to Repo) The musical numbers may not be too memorable, but they're an absolute blast, and are very well- written and performed.Characters are developed just enough for it's short 50-or-so-minute run- time. Although the only character you will really care about is John, as he's far more sympathetic than Merrywood or Tamara.The supporting cast (including Bill Mosely, Alexa Vega, Emilie Autumn and others as the cast members of the Carnival) are a lot of fun, but aren't really developed.And the camera-work, though decent for a short film, is a bit too chaotic at times. During the titular musical number "The Devil's Carnival", the camera seems to randomly glide around rather than follow any sort of direction, which kind of distracted from it.I also take issue with the pacing of the story. Well it is well- structured, the film bogs itself down too much in the first 10-or-so minutes, making the rest of the film feel needlessly rushed.But for what it is, it's worth seeing. The music is good, the characters are memorable despite uneven development, and it's a fine little short film.I give "The Devil's Carnival" a slightly-above-average 6 out of 10. Fans of Zdunich, Bousman or horror in general should check it out.

I loved Repo! The Genetic Opera so I thought I would at least like this. Did I? Well, the concept was interesting and there were, like, two catchy songs (one that played in the middle of the end credits). However, I didn't feel anything for the characters and I found myself checking the time throughout most of it. As for the music, I guess I was expecting more rocky tunes like the ones in Repo. I quickly learned that this is nothing like the movie I saw 20 times (and counting).The Devil's Carnival isn't the worst film ever, but it's not a film I would willingly watch again.