So a group of people that ran a haunted house in California decided to make a movie in said house.
The idea of a group of haunted house workers getting bumped off is a simple yet fun concept. Coming out just two years after the similar premise for Hauntedween, Dark Carnival could be considered the promised sequel that film never delivered.
If you have never heard of Hauntedween then stop reading, this movie is not for you.
For those of us who enjoy low budget regional horror films, Dark Carnival has plenty to offer, even if you do need to struggle to understand why things are happening most of the time.
In fact, there is a really interesting bit they do early on where once the killer shows up, all the actors seem to take on the persona of whatever killer or monster they are playing and begin doing things for real.
This is actually a pretty cool concept that I wish they would have followed up on more. Instead we get a bit of a confusing mess where a guy in a weird puffy clown costume bumps a few of the cast off before the movie shifts gears a third time to now the house itself is evil and feeds off the horror created(?)
It takes a lot of work to plan a successful haunted house. Unfortunately it seems like the same planning was not put into the film. Any one of the ideas they had would have made for a good film, but together they are a bit confusing. We learn absolutely nothing about any of the characters and thusly do not care for them. But damn, it's fun taking a time warp back to a haunted house in 1993 and seeing the whole thing, inner workings and all.