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CARNAGE ROAD
Produced and Directed by Massimiliano Cerchi
Written by John Polonia
Edited by Mark Polonia
Director of Photography - Paul SteeleRobert - Deal Paul
Linda - Molinee Dawn
Mike - Sean Wing
Amy - Melissa Brown
Old Man- Mike Paulie
Driver - Mack Hail
Quiltface - HimselfI remember seeing this film about 5 minutes after the final cut reached picture lock. Massimiliano (Max) Cerchi turned to me and said, "this is the best film I've ever shot. Look at all the mental abuse!" At the time I thought to myself, "yeah, right, the best film you've 'shot', but not your best film."
I take that statement back. It might very well be Max Cerchi's best film…of the handful of pictures I've seen.
As for the "mental abuse" thing, I don't know about that. This ain't exactly The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not even close. Although, there is some old guy who's a dead ringer for Gunner Hanson.
To make the film, Max enlisted his good friends John and Mark Polonia, the two men responsible for the abysmal BLOOD RED PLANET, the only film to ever give me indigestion without having eaten anything first. The end result is worlds apart from HELLINGER, the last film Max directed. Gone is the heavy-handed dialogue, Mark and John punch up the usually benign banter with some wonderful verbal comedy.
I doubt Max originally intended to parody the slasher genre, but that's exactly what he's ended up doing. The Polonia Brothers take slasher-stereotypes and elevate the dialogue to a surreal state of hyper-reality. What allows the film to work is Max's choice as director to keep from playing up the comedy and treating the story with dead-on seriousness. The result steers clear of camp, and ends up just south of satire.
As a filmmaker, Max Cerchi is more interested with the killer than the rest of the characters. He subscribes to the old-school belief that it's the "hook" that sells. The bad guy has to stand out. Satan Clause (a homicidal Kris Kringle), Hellinger (the Devil's number one executioner), and now Quiltface. Sometimes it works (Hellinger), and sometimes it doesn't (Satan Clause). Quiltface, himself, is an amalgamation of horror icons such as Leatherface and Jason Vorhees, he has human faces stitched together and sewn onto his own, and he wields a nasty machete. When it comes to parody, it's usually better to be as broad as possible, you allow for the greatest number of people to get the joke.
Concerning the actual look of the film, Max was right, it is gorgeous. Max succumbs to John Ford-itus, when in a desert as picturesque as Monument Valley, it's hard to put an ugly image on film. You have to allow the location's natural beauty to come out on it's own. What's great about deserts is they lend themselves to so many different plot types, you can play up themes of isolation or survival, in this case Max plays up hopelessness. It surprised me how well it worked for the film instead of undermining the tone. Maybe that reflects the skill of the craftsman behind the camera, I couldn't say. All I know is that this is not only the best film Max Cerchi has shot, but his best film.