AKA The Midnight Horror Show.
I'm sure I've been quite mean about writer-director Andrew Jones before, and it will undoubtedly happen again if I watch more of his movies (which I will, I have the memory of a goldfish and often jump into my movie viewing choices without too much forethought), but it does give you reason to pause and reconsider your approach when you find out that the man you're about to perhaps harshly judge died in 2023 at the young age of 39. I was genuinely sorry to find that out, and decided it needed mentioning here, along with the fact that Jones was certainly prolific, at the very least, having helmed 21 low-budget British horror features in 15 years.
Having said all that, this is another poor one though, and there's no easy way to sugar-coat the pill. Jones was someone who seemed to enjoy making movies, despite the fact that he was never able to rise above the many limitations working against him.
What you get here is a very standard set-up. There's a family of travelling performers who like to lure innocent victims in and kill them. The Moreau family (headed up by Doctor Deimor Moreau, played by Jared Morgan) seem to have been doing this for a while, and don't look ready to stop any time soon. Some feel more strongly about it than others though, and they may all end up being forced to stop when someone ends up hunting them down to avenge the recent death of a young woman.
What should be a fun and easy watch is, sadly, dragged down by a whole heap of issues. What should be an opportunity for some interesting visuals, at the very least, is presented in a load of shots that are drab and framed to cover up the varying quality of the production design and the special effects. The characters aren't given enough to do (although both Lee Bane and Nathan Head benefit from being allowed to portray the more memorable family members). There's none of the blend of menace and glee that you'd expect from this type of thing, and certainly none of the atmosphere you would expect to be created from the classic juxtaposition of theatrical merriment and sadistic horrors.
Morgan, Bane, and Head are okay, if I'm being kind, and Sam Harding and Shireen Ashton can also be damned with the same faint praise, but what was really needed here was someone not afraid to deliver something much bigger than the film surrounding them. It would absolutely have unbalanced things, but something being unbalanced is better than something being tiresome, and completely forgettable as soon as the end credits have rolled.
I'd advise everyone to stay away from this one. It's less Something Wicked This Way Comes and more Something Tiresome Is Here To Be Endured. And everyone reading this can consider my final rating to be generous, considering the context I mentioned in the opening paragraph.
3/10
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