Editorials
We Attended ‘The Devil’s Carnival’ Premiere, Here’s What You Can Expect
This past thursday The Devil’s Carnival had its world premiere at the Laemmle Royal Theater in Santa Monica. Before the show a line of gothic carnie cosplayers snaked around the block from the building’s entrance – no doubt fans of Darren Lynn Bousman and his previous cult hit, Repo: The Genetic Opera.
The Devil’s Carnival wasn’t only premiering at the event, it was embarking on a 40 plus date road show that will see it – and members of its cast and crew – traveling the countryside and taking their circus to as many theaters as possible. Whatever you may think of Repo or this film, at least they provide experiences that are impossible to download.
Terrance Zdunich, who co-wrote Repo, also wrote the music for Carnival with Saar Hendelman. Zdunich stars alongside Bill Moseley, Briana Evigan, Emilie Autumn, J. Larose, Alexa Vega, Ogre, Paul Sorvino, Marc Senter, Sean Patrick Flanery and Slipknot’s The Clown.
In the film, “sinners are invited to a theme park where they endure the repetition of their transgressions. What chances do a conniving kleptomaniac, a gullible teenager, and an obsessed father stand when facing their own moral failings? Lucifer and his colorful cast of singing carnies invite you to grab a ticket to The Devil’s Carnival to find out!”
Head inside for a rundown of the event and some words from Bousman, Zdunich and the cast.
It should be noted that The Devil’s Carnival is an indie film in pretty much every sense of the world. From the nature of its financing, the way it came together creatively and the harsh conditions under which it was filmed, there was very little in the way of “luxury” to be had during the process of bringing it to the screen.
Speaking to Bousman, “We greenlit this on January 1st. It was supposed to be a 15 minute short with three songs at that point. By January 10th we expanded it to 10-15 songs and the cast had expanded from 5 people to 20 people. And – by the way – we didn’t get any more money. The amount of money was always the same, we just made it bigger anyway. I think what we were able to pull off for little to nothing is pretty remarkable.”
When it came to the topic of the roadshow he was also excited, it will bring this film to far more film patrons that the theatrical releases of 11-11-11 and Mother’s Day or pretty much anything he’s done since Repo four years ago. “I have this movie on more screens than my last three movies combined. And that, to me, is just disgusting. But it’s cool at the same time. It showed me that I don’t need someone to tell me what I can or can’t do anymore. This is the least marketable movie ever, but we were able to do it because we believed in it.”
When I spoke to Zdunich, who co-wrote the music and also plays Lucifer, he filled me in on the creative process behind the tunes. “The film runs about 60 minutes, and 32 of those minutes are music. So, for me, it really started with finding these archetypes and then finding the music to fit them. And I went from there.”
Nor was the production without some good old desert vandalism. Per producer Sean E. Demott, “These local kids broke into the dressing rooms when no one was watching and ran away with tons of hard drives. We literally had half of our crew chasing them down the road at two in the morning. We finally caught them and they had stashed the sh*t in a house. It was like an episode of “Cops” that landed on our set. ”
The elements themselves were also grueling. Bill Mosely, who plays The Magician in the film, joked that he’s still concerned about his health. “It was very cold and dusty. I may end up with the brown lung. Circus lung. But I enjoyed it. It’s always a pleasure to get back with the ‘Repo” bunch.”
While the film The Devil’s Carnival only runs 55 minutes, there’s much more to the experience than the film itself. The crew behind the roadshow has done everything they can to provide the audience with a carnival atmosphere short of assembling a ferris wheel in the parking lot.
Burlesque dancers take a cue from Lady Gaga and her fire spewing brazier as they dance to Marilyn Manson. Contortionists writhe across the stage. If you’re in costume – you’re called up to the front to take part in the cosplay contest. Repo nuts are also in for a treat – as a nearly 20 minutes behind the scenes look at that film’s production also unspools before Carnival. It gives you a fairly good luck at the atmosphere that’s created when everyone’s pulling together trying to make one of these gonzo musicals and it’s way more entertaining than your average EPK.
Warning to would-be pirates – perhaps my favorite part of the night is where they make the audience stand up and pledge not to pirate or upload the film. The audience is encouraged to police each other for douchebag activity, and if you’re caught you just may get punched in the nuts. Their words, not mine.
You can check out the rest of the dates on the roadshow and buy your tickets here.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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