I’ve always been a fan of genre mash-ups. To paraphrase writer Alan Moore, life is so many genres at once, why stay alone? It’s always fun to see horror, especially when it comes to combining other types of stories to create something different. And in the case Chamber of Terror zigzag on a field like that!
The story follows Nash Caruthers (Timothy Paul McCarthy), a stupid, poorly certified guy whose reactions tend to be “first, ask questions later.” The film begins with him kidnapping Tyler Ackerman (Seth O’Shea), a descendant of the notoriously brutal Ackerman criminal family. Nash seals Tyler in a coffin and intends to take revenge on Tyler and his friends for a past mistake. One month later, Nash is targeted, beaten and abducted by several people sent by The Ackermans and taken for an abandoned and titular carnival walk. Chamber of Terror. There, he confronts Ava Ackerman (Jessica Vano), who is intent on looking good for her father and finding or taking revenge on Tyler in one way or another. Unknown to all parties, the location has a sordid history beyond their knowledge and returns to haunt them, literally …
Image via Panic Fest
Chamber of Terror is Michael Pereira’s debut film and he’s even trying to shoot for the moon. Starting as a kind of low budget Reservoir Dogs before things start to turn into Poltergeist. Gender confusion is evident with the character of Nash Caruthers. With his eyes, threats and perpetual sunglasses on his head, he would feel more in line when playing with Schwarzenegger or Stallone. He is a man eager to take revenge on Ackerman and be justified until the “why” is revealed. This hammy action star creates a fun contrast between him and the Ackerman family, who tend to quarrel or get hurt with an almost Quentin Tarantino style.
The setting is as much a character as anyone else in the movie. holder Chamber of Terror being an abandoned amusement park attraction, made even scarier by its abandoned nature and true to its name, as Patriarch Ackerman turned it into a real torture chamber for his mafia victims and a place to eliminate them. Adding another level to a seriously creepy carnival.
The story unfolds almost entirely there, but with plenty of space and twists to keep it fresh as the horror unleashes. By the way, the FXs in this movie are pretty remarkable, despite the budget constraints. Almost entirely practical FX means that there are large amounts of blood and intestines put on the screen whenever someone is shot, stabbed or torn to pieces. It fits the retro aesthetic that the story pursues.
Image via IMDB
Although it is not the most inventive horror comedy and I rely a little on the nostalgia factor, I can still appreciate that Chamber of Terror he has a lot of power and inventiveness. A crazy criminal comedy turned into a splattterflick with some decent revelations that really made it stand out.
3 eyes out of 5