The 
  Carpenter 

Canada, 1988  

... He builds terror!

***

Directed by: David Wellington

Starring: Wings Hauser, Lynne Adams, Pierre Lenoir, Barbar Jones, Louise-Marie Mennier, Johnny Cuthbert, Robert Austern, Anthony Ilc, Bob Pot, Richard Jutras, Ron Lea, Beverly Murray

Choice dialogue:  “That’s a funny way to look at a psychotic mass murderer.”  

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review:JA Kerswell

THE CARPENTER is a real curiosity. It has elements that will be very familiar to fans of late ‘80s horror movies - from the outlandish power tool death scenes to the wisecracking killer (a great turn by Wings Hauser). However, the film is not put together in anything resembling a conventional way at all. Although the idea of an unreliable narrator is hardly a new one, the wrinkle here is that everyone else can see The Carpenter, too, not just Alice. Unlike LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH (1971), another film that deals with the ambiguity around the sanity of a woman recovering from a breakdown, there appears to be no ambiguity here at all. Perhaps at the start, the film may have flirted with the idea of him being a figment of her imagination; despite being a ghostly serial killer and former owner of the house, he is presented in a very flesh-and-blood form. Alice floats through much of the film in a fugue state where she treats The Carpenter as both a romantic suitor and something from a dream. She doesn’t even react when he cuts off the arms of a man with a power tool in front of her. To add to this state of confusion, for both Alice and the audience, it appears that sometimes she is dreaming, including the scene where it is suggested that The Carpenter is pulling down his flies to reveal his penis as a whirling power drill. In another scene, the discombulating effect is amplified during a conversation the pair have, where each time it cuts back to him, he has a different DIY project underway. It’s the kind of imagery that isn’t questioned during a dream, but makes no sense in real life.
 
Although the dream imagery isn’t taken to the extreme in the way the then still popular A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series did, it is perhaps not a surprise that the franchise was something of an inspiration for this film, especially its touches of humour. THE CARPENTER was a product of a youthful partnership between director David Wellingtom and writer Doug Taylor (they were only 24 years old when they made this). The pair had worked together on ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE (1987), and ex-porno producer Jack Bravman was impressed enough by their idea to bankroll the film.
 
THE CARPENTER was filmed in Montreal and around Quebec over 15 days in late 1986 or early 1987. The house used was about to be gutted, so the filmmakers were told they could pretty do what they wanted to it. The budget was in the region of about $350,000. Wings Hauser was a late addition to the cast after previous suggestions Peter Fonda and Kier Dullea didn’t work out. Hauser, who had prior slasher form chasing Meg Foster around a Greek island with a hand scythe in Nico Mastorakis’ THE WIND (akaTHE EDGE OF TERROR), was hired to play the title character. The actor was only on set for a couple of days and was allegedly an elusive presence, as he would return to his room after any take he was part of and didn’t socialise with the cast.
The film skipped theatrical distribution in the United States, but did get a limited release to Canadian theatres - including a French dubbed version in Quebec. The filmmakers were surprised that Cinema Canada took the film seriously and even extolled it as a “feminist horror film”. A December 1989 review in the Toronto Star said: “Made in Quebec on a painfully thin budget, this is a psychological thriller that squeezes whatever shocks it can from the inventive use of power tools, sort of a Toolbox Murders for the late ‘80s. Nail guns, staple guns, power saws, cordless drills, you name it — if it can be found in a fix-it shop, someone gets killed with it. As the homicidal handyman, veteran heavy Hauser alternates between the gentleness of John Lithgow and the down-home hysterics of Gary Busey, both of whom he resembles from various angles.”
 
Ultimately, whilst not entirely successful, THE CARPENTER is a real Canadian curio that plays with conventions whilst turning them into the cinematic equivalent of a fever dream.  

BODY COUNT 5: 
Female 1 / Male 4

  1. Male has his arms cut off
  2. Male is buzz-sawed to death
  3. Male has his eyelids stapled shut and a power drill through his throat
  4. Female is shot through with a nail gun
  5. Male has his head crushed in a vice

THE CARPENTER (Hysteria Lives! Video Review)

THE CARPENTER (Trailer)



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