CARNIVAL MAGIC (1983) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review/Comparison)

CARNIVAL MAGIC (1983) 

Label: Severin Kids
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Al Adamson
Cast: Don Stewart, Reginal Carrol, Jennifer Houlton, Howard Segal, Joe Cirillo, Mark Weston

For his penultimate film, exploitation legend Al Adamson (SATAN’S SADISTS, DRACULA VS. FRANKESTEIN) made perhaps the strangest move of his career with this surreal foray into ‘family entertainment’: Severin Kids presents Adamson’s first children’s movie, a delightful tale of alcoholism, domestic violence, a talking chimp with a brassiere fetish, vivisection, suicide, ‘The Freak-Out Girl’ Regina Carrol – in her final performance – flaunting an array of skintight/low-cut outfits, and not a single role for children. Don Stewart (THE GUIDING LIGHT) and Joe Cirillo (GHOSTBUSTERS) co-star in the infamous ‘80s oddity that has been hailed as “possibly the worst kiddie movie ever made” (DVD Drive-In) and “the finest family film since E.T.” (Joe Franklin), now scanned from the only surviving pre-print 35mm elements with all-new Special Features – including his last complete feature, the Sandra Dee starrer LOST – that reveal Al’s bizarre kiddie matinee legacy.

Director Al Adamson was a prolific director that made trashy z-grade exploitation and horror films that I imagine played the tail-end of a lot of a lot of triple-bills. I have never been a huge fan of what I've seen of his stuff, in fact, when I see his name slapped on a film I get apprehensive about watching it. To be fair I have not seen a lot of his stuff, but of what I've seen I have not been at all impressed, most of it coming from his earlier era when all the titles had some variation on the word "blood" in them. Distaste for his stuff aside, it's hard to appreciate his independent spirit, but I am definitely not the one seeking out all things Al Adamson.

Carnival Magic (1983) was the man's last film, a foray into the realm of kiddie friendly matinee programming with a story about a struggling carnival run by a guy named Stoney (Mark Weston, who also co-wrote the screenplay). The carnival seems to be on it's last legs Stoney has to make some cuts to the roster of performers. The star of the show is a tiger-tamer named Kirk (Joe Cirillo, Ghostbusters), who has it out for the mind-reading magician Markov the Magnificent (Don Stewart, TV's The Young & The Restless) so he tells Stoney it's either that magician goes or he does. with that ultimatum held over his head Stoney tells Kirk that he's gotta go, but Stoney's tomboy daughter Ellen (Jennifer Houlton, The Pilot) discovers that the magician has been keeping a secret hidden away in his trailer... and since it's an Al Adamson movie you might expecting some blood-sucking weirdo, which would be cool, but no... it's a talking chimp! She tells her father about it, who realizes that the talking chimp could be a goldmine for the struggling carnival, and he's right. Now, the talking chimp is not as amazing as you might be imagining, the dubbed voice sounds like a ninety year-old chain-smoking granny uttering one or two words at a time, very simplistic, but it sort of looks like it's talking, haha, not really. 

Ellen befriends the chimp, dubbed 'Alexander the Great', and he soon becomes the carnival's star attraction, further fueling the animosity of the hard-drinking and abusive tiger-tamer. The primate also hijacks a car with a busty woman asleep in the backseat, leading to a high-speed pursuit.  Along the way Ellen explores her budding teen-sexuality, and sparks fly between Markov and his busty assistant Kate (Regina Carroll, Satan's Sadists), while bad-guy Dr. Poole (Charles Reynolds) sees the chimp act and becomes obsessed with the possibility that the chimpanzee is proof of the missing evolutionary link, setting in motion a diabolical plot to kidnap and experiment on the talking primate. 

As a kiddie friendly film filtered through the eyes of an exploitation filmmaker it's off-kilter and strange, not a lot of kid films delve into alcoholism, suicide, and mad scientist, but it seemed like a good idea to producer Elvin Feltner and director Al Adamson. It's probably his best directed film that I have seen from Adamson, sure it's completely ridiculous and shabbily executed, but it feels like a traditional film, along the lines of something like Savannah Smiles(1982) but weirder, and that's probably why I dig it as much as I do, it's got that particular regional charm that I like, I sort of love that Adamson went from directing sexxed-up exploitation to this ineptly charming kiddie friendly film. I might be turning a corner on the films of Al Adamson, I just ordered his film Nurse Sherri (1978) on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome, time to check out his late-70's stuff. 

Audio/Video: Carnival Magic (1983) debuted on Blu-ray in 2010 Cultra/from HD Cinema Classics, with a presentation that left a lot to be desired. It was digitally scrubbed of grain, colors were washed out, skin tones were extremely cool. Now we have a new scan by Severin Films from the same theatrical print, the only known surviving element.  The new scan offers lots of improvements, while there's  more grit and imperfections visible by way of scratches, staining and whatnot but the colors are deeper and skin tones are warmer, it feels filmic with natural looking grain, and not so dang digital and waxy. For a screenshot comparison of the the older Blu-ray and the new Severin scan head over to the bottom of this review for a bunch of captures. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. It's got some age related issues but sounds good, the previous Blu-ray was Dolby Digital only, with an unnecessary and artificial sounding 5.1 remix, I like that Severin keep the original mono mix. 

Severin carry-over the bulk of the extras from previous release, that being an audio commentary from with Producer Elvin Feltner moderated by a pre-Vinegar Syndrome Joe Rubin, 21-minutes of silent outtakes, plus a TV spot and a trailer. Not carried over is the 12-min video interview with Elvin Feltner, an image gallery, and a dubious-looking restoration before and after comparison, in which it the restoration clearly looked worse than the raw elements. 

Exclusive to Severin release is a cool 12-min appreciation by Zack Carlson and Lars Nilsen who relate the story of how the only surviving print of the film was found at a movie house run by punk rockers, and then getting into the era's wave of ape-sploitation films.

TV Spot & Trailer 

That's not all though, we also get Al Adamson's little seen film Lost (1983), starring Sandra Dee (The Dunwich Horror) and Don Stewart as a couple who move from the city into the country with their young daughter. She ends up running away and has to face the wilds, including a mountain lion, but ends up befriending a gruff but kindly mountain man played by Jack Elam (Hannie Caulder). Not sure what the source here is, but it's not great looking, presented in 1.33:1 full frame with English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio, optional English subtitles are included. The disc is buttoned-up with a trailer for Lost plus 23-min of silent rushes for a film Adamson never ended up directing called 'The Happy Hobo'.

Lost (1983) 

The single-disc release comes housed in a snazzy looking black keepcase with a a sleeve of artwork with the original movie poster artwork. The artwork on the disc itself splits it down the middle advertising both films. 

Special Features:
- A Boom To Science – A Critical Appreciation by Zack Carlson & Lars Nilsen (12 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Producer Elvin Feltner moderated by Joe Rubin 
- Outtakes (21 min) 
- TV Spot (1 min) 
- Trailer (1 min) 
- Bonus Film: LOST (92 min) (1080p HD, DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with Optional English Subtitles) 
- The Happy Hobo – Rushes for Promo From Unproduced Adamson Kids Film (23 min) 
- LOST Trailer (1 min) 

There's a quote on the back of the wrap declaring that this film was “the finest family film since E.T.” from a prominent TV personality back in the day, which made me giggle, clearly the distributor was associated with the mafia, or had something on this critic for him stake his reputation on such a wrong-headed statement! It's not the worst film Al Adamson ever made, he made a lot worse than this, though it's also not good, but this thing had a weird regional charm that I dig. I am still not a big fan of Al Adamson's films, but I did just watch the Blood & Flesh - The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson doc and it's excellent. The man was well liked and lived a storied life, a life disturbingly cut short when he was brutally murdered in 1995, and it turns out that the story of his life is far more compelling that the z-grade films he made, but at least going forward I will have a better appreciation of his body of work, if still not exactly loving it.  

Top: Film Chest Blu-ray (2010)

Bottom: Severin Films Blu-ray (2020)