Movies
[SXSW Review] You’ll Want to Play In ‘Carnage Park!’
Mickey Keating’s Carnage Park comes to us just six months after the premiere of his previous film Darling at Fantastic Fest (you can read my review of that film here), which came to us just six months after the premiere of his film Pod (read Patrick’s review here). You’ve got to admire Keating for his ambition: he never replicates his previous films and he churns them out so quickly that it’s almost impossible to believe. His latest effort, Carnage Park, is an homage to 70s exploitation films that is a lot of fun for the duration of its runtime, but ends up feeling slight by the time the credits roll.
The plot is a familiar one (think The Hills Have Eyes meets The Most Dangerous Game): When Scorpion Joe (James Landry Hébert, Looper, Gangster Squad) and Lenny (Michael Villar, Visions) botch a bank robbery in 1978 California, they flee the scene with a hostage, Vivian Fontaine (Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism). In the ensuing car chase, Joe takes a back road to escape the police and unwittingly brings them into the crosshairs of a psychotic ex-military sniper named Wyatt Moss (Pat Healy, Cheap Thrills, The Innkeepers) who uses the desert as his own personal playground for killing. From there, Vivian must fight for survival and escape what is dubbed by the locals as “Carnage Park.”
One thing Keating, who wrote and directed the film, is fantastic at is style. Sure, each film of his acts as an homage to great horror auteurs, but isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Carnage Park is no different, acting as an homage to 70s films like Straw Dogs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (an opening text even recounts the events of the film as “perhaps the most bizarre episode in the annals of American crime”). References to Tarantino are aplenty as well, with non-linear storytelling and a certain ear-slicing calling to mind that directors debut film. Carnage Park is also beautifully shot in the California desert, with yellows and oranges filling the screen. The heat on screen is palpable, and the viewer might often feel dirty while watching it.
One stylistic decision that doesn’t work quite as well as it should is an extended sequence set in the mining tunnels below Carnage Park. The entire sequence is filmed in the pitch black, with the occasional lighting of the frame. The decision to film the sequence this way is understandable, since mining tunnels are dark, but it ends up confusing the viewer more so than instilling a sense of suspense or paranoia. Otherwise, the movie is an experiment in style that definitely pays off.
Bell once again proves that she is a final girl for the ages. She proved herself at being perfectly adept in The Last Exorcism, but here she is tasked with carrying the film and she does it with aplomb. Her Vivian spends the majority of the film screaming and running, but she is resourceful when she needs to be, preventing her from turning into a standard horror movie victim. You want this girl, who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, to survive. Most of that is thanks to Bell’s spectacular performance, and it’s a wonder that we haven’t seen more of her recently.
Healy is equally impressive as Moss, though his character is given zero reasoning for his motivation for his killings, and you almost wish he had more scenes with Bell so that the two could play off of each other more. Alan Ruck’s (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) cop character has a connection to Moss that I won’t spoil here, but the particular motivations behind his character’s decisions are a little frustrating. That being said, motivation isn’t the point of Carnage Park, so it’s a minor quibble. Darby Stanchfield (Scandal) and genre staple Larry Fessenden are also strong in their cameos, but they aren’t given much to do (I’m curious to know if Stanchfield is a close friend of Keating’s, as it seems an odd career decision to take on her particular role).
Carnage Park isn’t a perfect film, but it’s a fun little ride. One hopes that Keating will eventually deliver a film that is 100% his own (though I’m particularly curious to see how he would handle the slasher sub-genre), but until then it’s enjoyable just to hope along for the ride he takes us on with each of his distinctly different films. He is certainly growing as a director, and if anything, Carnage Park will have you excited for whatever he brings us next.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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