Theatre of Fear (2014)

_**Spare change Welsh horror in the mold of Rob Zombie flicks**_ A cult carnival consisting of a patriarch, three brothers and a sister tours Britain, but when customers go missing it attracts a no-nonsense private investigator. Havoc ensues. Released in 2014-2015, "The Midnight Horror Show,” also known as “Theatre of Fear,” is a micro-budget Welsh flick obviously influenced by Rob Zombie’s “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects” from the early 2000s. The reason I watched this Indie is because I found the trailer intriguing, which turns out to be the movie’s intro. The theme song by Bobby Cole is outstanding and worth the price of admission. A fuller version plays during the end credits. Beyond the well-done opening, this is clearly a low-rent production by one-man-filmmaker Andrew Jones (producer/writer/director), which can be observed in the abysmal lack of wide angle shots. Practically every camera angle is a relative close-up, which of course saves money on locations & sets. The movie “Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers” (2011) had the same glaring issue. If you can look past this flaw, there’s enough here to appreciate for those who can handle spare-change budget flicks. Besides the superb title song, the no-name cast rises to the challenge with Jared Morgan as the ringleader and Nathan Head as the scarred clown standing out, not to mention the alluring Shireen Ashton as Venus. (Sarah Louise Madison and Tiffany Ceri are also worth a mention on the feminine front). There is a colorful sense of artistry and a dash of spirituality amidst the familial mayhem. The clown’s subplot stands out, as does the ventriloquist’s struggle with his brazen dummy, which is figurative of the battle within of which most people can relate. Meanwhile the gore is effective if that’s your thang (not that it’s overdone). I can’t say the movie’s very scary because it focuses on dramatics, but it works up some atmosphere and there are thrills to be had, plus the unexpected climax to the clown arc is shocking. This is a hard picture to rate because the parts that work are good to outstanding, like the music, whereas the problematic parts are pretty stark. The film runs around 1 hour, 21 minutes, and was shot in South Wales. GRADE: C