Carnage: 
The Legend of Quiltface
(aka: Carnage Road)
(2002)
review by Busterface

I was a wee bit nervous about reviewing CARNAGE. I am rather good buddies with the director Massimiliano Cerchi. and I never wanted to place myself in a position where I would feel obligated to give a movie a good review because I know that director, nor I did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings by giving their movie a bad review. I am in a tricky situation every time I review an indie movie because I myself am an indie director, and the indie scene is a small tightly knit group of people. Most of us know about each other and have conversed at one time or another. We all try to be as supportive as possible to each other because making independent features is not an easy task and the support for the indie scene is not as strong as it needs to be. All of us are poor and most of us have regular 9-5 jobs to pay the bills, so one can see the predicament that I have placed myself in by reviewing independent features. I want to be supportive and honest at the same time. It's tough, but I try.

Cerchi's CARNAGE has not blazed any trails storywise. Four college students set out to the desert to snap some photos for their photography class. They hitch a ride with a chain smoking bad ass that tries to warn the group about the legend of a maniac named Quiltface that roams the desert killing the unwanted. Of course, the four college students do not believe the stories told to them and continue on to the desert, and, of course, once they arrive in the desert, they quickly realize that the legends of Quiltface are true and must fight for their lives in the middle of nowhere.

I have to be honest and say that the most painful aspect of this movie was the cartoon sounding sound effects when Quiltface hacks people up with his machete. FRUUUUMP! CRACKLE! CRACKE! FRUUUMMMMPP!!! SWISH!!! THUMP!!! The Foley sounds became almost unbearable for me, but I was able to over come the Tex Avery-ness and actually grew to really enjoy the movie. Dean Paul was outstanding as the male lead, and had a good supporting cast. The dialogue was well written and the sets were very nice and really painted a beautiful picture of desolation on screen.

Though not a perfect movie, CARNAGE still manages to shine through its minimal budget and is highly recommended for fans of films like THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. I am pretty sure that QUILTFACE is the crazy little brother of LEATHERFACE.

The DVD from Brain Damage is light on extras. A nice stills gallery and trailers make up this bare boned DVD. There are signs of compression littered throughout the presentation, and the audio struggles at times, especially when the wind blows on the boom mic, which rumbles the subwoofer and drowns out any dialog.

So there it is a 100% honest review of a movie of a friend. Job very well done, Massimiliano!