Director: Steve Rudzinski
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Trying to adjust to his newfound family, the sentient carousel horse and his son find that a strange trail of bodies being left is the result of a murderous carousel rabbit and its minions intent on tracking them down and seeking revenge for what he did in the past bringing him to save his family.
Review:
This was a rather enjoyable and likable entry in the franchise. One of the finer points here is the immensely entertaining storyline that keeps things moving along smoothly a swell as tying together all sorts of threads from the past. The main gist of the storyline involving the rabbit’s quest to seek out the bodies of other objects like her and take their power for her own use which is then played off nicely with the film turning into a fantastic allegory on the nature of revenge. With the defense force out trying to stop her from killing others being curtailed by the agent’s penchant for revenge against him for how the original rampage threw his life into chaos and left him a deformed, scarred victim looking to take it out on the killer unicorn so the attempts at connecting this to the other entries in the series as well as telling a great tale of the nature of revenge and how it can affect people.
That also allows the film to continue a common theme from the rest of the series with a slew of cheesy, silly genre action that lets the indie sensibilities to great effect. Mixing the sarcastic sense of humor with the quippy puns, one-liners, and the general absurdity of the situation that ends up meshing well with plenty of absurd deaths full of inventive kills and great gore, there’s tons of fun to be had here with each of the various encounters taking place. From the opening massacre at the party to the several flashbacks and rewriting of history to bring about the timeline jumps that take place and the finale that includes wrestling matches, a series of impressive fight scenes with the inanimate and inarticulate creatures as well as a happy ending thrown in for good measure, this all comes together incredibly well by keeping the combination of heart and silliness with the genuine genre thrills to have quite a lot going for it.
There really isn’t much wrong with the film and what flaws it has does come down to personal preference. The main feature of this is the rather bizarre feature early on where it seems to just end on a sudden shock only to then start over from an entirely different point in the story and carry on with an alternate viewpoint to get to the same place again which is somewhat confusing to sit through at first before the film does it again leaving the film a bit all over the place the first time through. It’s not a huge issue and eventually works itself out over time but the first time through is a bit of a challenge trying to figure this part out. The other part here that might pose a problem is the cheesiness of what’s going on here, with the obviousness of the inarticulate objects as main characters, flimsy props, and goofy gore that is quite apparent from the rest of the series and is carried over here so it’s not something to really hold against it.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely enjoyable entry in the series, there’s quite a lot to like here that keeps this one as enjoyable as it is and serves as a fine addition to the franchise. Those that are fans of the previous entries in the series, appreciate this kind of indie genre effort, or are curious about it will have plenty to like here while those that are turned off by these features should heed caution.
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