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Review: Christopher Ray’s Circus Kane

It’s funny. I was about to fail this movie after my viewing, but I waited a few days before starting to write this up and now I have a completely different perspective. I was going to fail it because of what it could have been instead of giving it a fair shake based on what it is. For a largely independent film, Circus Kane has marvelous and astounding production value and pulled off a lot of amazing things that few other films could have accomplished with its budgetary restraints. Pre-production and set design must have been burdens of love and a source of many headaches, but all the time and effort payed off with the culmination of one Hell of a movie. Circus Kane is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets Saw. And I sort of ended up loving it.

Based on the screenplay by James Cullen Bressack and Zack Ward, Circus Kane follows a group of social media stars and horror industry workers who are invited to a world famous fun house hosted by the dastardly Circus Kane. All the group has to do is survive the night and successfully navigate the trials of the fun house and they’ll each receive a $250,000 prize. Unfortunately, the legendary ring master is all that rumors say he is – crazy, deranged and a murderer. His fun house is booby trapped with axes, barbed wire, fire and all other methods of torture. The night becomes one invitation the men and women wish they denied. Let the games begin in this vibrant and bloody feature film from director Christopher Ray.

I enjoyed the cool, vintage opening and I loved that the potential victims are lured to the fun house through text message. It was the right hook to have in place and it succeeded in reeling me in, especially because I love reality show type elements and stupid dares. I also loved that Bressack and Ward did a fantastic job of establishing Circus Kane’s backstory and agendas because it made the villain seem like an actually character with a personality more than a one sided killer that we’ve seen 100’s of times before. The potential victims all being relevant on social media or working in the horror industry was a nice touch, too. I guess the best way I can summarize my sentiments here is that the writing team created a script that was fun, modern and suspenseful without sacrificing thrills or quality. And the general premise is realistic in that most people will do anything for a lump some of cash, even if it means risking their lives to get the money in their bank account.

Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire, The Little Vampire, Stuart Little), Tim Abell, Richard Moll, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Victoria Konefal, Nicole Fox, Ted Monte, Cameron Jebo, Sinjin Rosa, Erin Micklow and Bill Voorhees star in this feature film produced by Gerald Webb, Christopher Ray and James Cullen Bressack with cinematographer Alexander Yellen. The acting performances are honestly pretty terrible here. Very underwhelming. Someone gets sawed in half and there’s minimal reaction. Two more people die and everyone seems bored. Had the actors given worthwhile portrayals and if the score was a little different, I think Circus Kane could have been a notch or two higher. I have a big feeling casual viewers are going to have the same “i could even do better than that” reaction to some scenes. Honestly, half the cast scraped average while the rest were far below it. And then there’s Jonathan Lipnicki, who was familiar enough that I had to google him and was shocked to see the little boy he used to be. He’s certainly a man now (Instagram confirms this with a picture of him in nothing but a blue speedo… *cough*) and Circus Kane is his second horror movie after 2013’s Bering Sea Beast. I’m glad to see he was able to navigate the trenches of being a child star and come out on top. His career is going well and his on screen presence was enjoyable here.

So, what makes up for the lackluster acting? The gore and suspense, of course! Circus Kane is an absolute horror thriller, mixing suspense, drama and bloodshed into a genre-breaking gem. The blood flows pretty freely here, and often, and it looks realistic as Hell. Some brutalizing scenes and kill shots were done with balls to the walls while others were more laid back and were almost half-hidden by other props or body parts. This was such a smart idea because it kept any special effects mistakes or hokeyness from being visible to the viewer. You know that Christopher Ray and his team of professionals delivered on the promise of an amazing experience when an entire stunts team and several medics were on hand during filming. All the risks seriously payed off. Yeah, things get pretty crazy and you’ll be able to see them first hand when you buy or stream Circus Kane. Again, if you’re a fan of the Saw series, you’re going to love the Hell out of Circus Kane. From start to finish, it’s a juicy, cruel and harrowing journey with several twists and turns you won’t see coming. I think it’s safe to say that Circus Kane has raised the bar when it comes to dramatics, set design, and overall production quality in direct-to-DVD horror titles. Well done! Final Score: 7.5 out of 10.

And props to me for only typing Citizen Kane twice during this review…

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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