SCREAM PARK

Scream Park Movie Review

A group of employees at Fright Land decide to throw a party after the amusement park closes its doors for the final time. Unfortunately for them, the party is crashed by a couple masked maniacs out for blood. This low budget indie flick, funded at least partially by Kickstarter donations, immediately gains points from me simply due to its setting--if you have read some of my previous reviews, you know I am a sucker for anything set at a carnival or amusement park. The scenes at the park were shot at the real-life Conneaut Lake Park in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, and in case you're wondering, that's in the upper Northwest corner of the state. 

It's no The Beast, but it looks fun!

Writer/director Cary Hill stated he was inspired to make this movie after going to an amusement park and thinking it would be a good location for a 1980's throwback type horror film--I can't disagree with that idea, but do not make the mistake of thinking this movie is set in the 1980's; it's not (it's actually set around 2012), but you can certainly see the inspiration from that rad decade. Most of the effects are practical, which is nice, but the few that are not are really rough. Speaking of rough, the acting is brutally bad, but strangely enough, there is at least one face most horror fans will recognize...

Picture him with pins

Yes, Doug Bradley of Hellraiser fame stops by for a cameo, bringing with him more acting talent in his 8 minutes of screen time than every other actor in this production combined for the entire rest of the movie. 

He also brings his puzzle box, just for the "hell" of it

If you are a fan of 1980's electro-industrial music (if you have no idea what this is, look it up and thank me later), there is another face you may recognize in this one--Ogre from Skinny Puppy (and Repo! The Genetic Opera) plays one of the masked killers. 

Well, he's masked most of the time

If you are anti-amateurish looking movies, you will likely not get much enjoyment out of this movie (unless you are as obsessed with carnivals as I am). I am personally not a big fan of this type presentation for movies made in the 21st Century, but believe me when I tell you there are a lot worse ones out there. My main problem with the movie is the lack of any character depth at all. We have no reason to care about any of the characters, including our survivor (you'll predict this one right off). The story is bland, though the appearance of Bradley's character near the end of the film adds a bit of interest to this aspect of the film. Catching the continuity errors adds some enjoyment to the watching experience, so there is that too. Ultimately, Scream Park is a decent little slasher film--it's not one I recommend going out of your way to watch, but if you come across it, give it a shot. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

Scream Park Movie Trailer