Carver (2008)

Based on the set-up and SOV approach, I wasn't expecting all that much from "Carver", but I'll be damned, it actually wasn't that bad. It's a competently directed, acted and shot backwoods-slasher flick that doesn't skimp on the grisly violence.

Your average 'clique' of body-count reserve are on a camping trip. After stopping at a small town restaurant, they agree to run an errand for the owner in return for a night of comped drinks, which leads them to discover a stash of brutal snuff films. Believing them to just be home-made slasher movies, they ignorantly stumble into the clutches of a fat hillbilly psychopath who takes great joy is slowly torturing and killing people with rusty hand tools...

"Carver" is nothing new, plot wise, but it's an easy flick to enjoy if you dig copious amounts of sadistic gore. We're talking bloody handsaw decapitations, testicle crushing and protracted sledgehammer bone smashing. It's definitely taken a little further than your regular low-budget "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" imitation, which is enough for me to make an exception when it comes to this type of typically redundant 'modern'-slasher fodder. Not to say this is libel to rock your world, but it's got decent enough performances for what it is and it's obvious that they were at least TRYING. So, my hat goes off to the ultra-violent material and the reasonably adept way in which it was shot. Recommended.