‘Carnage Radio’ Panic Fest 2024 Review: An Ambitious Yet Mixed Signal

Sorry, Carnage Radio, but you’re not the winning caller. Movies, broadly speaking, must transcend the sum of their individual parts, and for what it’s worth, James Fite’s Carnage Radio is composed of very, very good parts. The cast, across the board, seamlessly shift into their small-town Texan roles, adroitly balancing quirks and genial Southern hospitality with ease. Musical interludes, though non-descript (licensed tracks might well be reduced to a genre, an ‘insert rock song here’ vibe) texturize familiar settings. Yet, Fite’s scale is so large, so involved, it erodes the pinpoint parts keeping it together. Carnage Radio shoots for the moon, just barely managing to land among the stars.

Requite geographic exposition transitions to Brad’s (Brandon J. Johnson) radio show. As a guest calls in, they’re stalked off-screen. Then, they die off-screen, introducing a laudable though misguided procedural component with Oliva Clari Nice’s Detective Sarah Ornelas. Principally, the scale of a micro-indie production often constrains Carnage Radio’s guiding narrative. The procedural elements feel conventional in a world otherwise distinct in the Horror sphere, checking off every expected procedural variable there is.

Carnage Radio has angry police chiefs, tortured detectives, sudden revelations, and even a slow-motion walk into a crime scene lit exclusively by red and blue siren lights. Billed as a slasher, the slashing itself sits backseat, caged away from the movie Carnage Radio is trying, not always successfully, to be.

Character carries most of the weight, delivering even as the scope exceeds tenability. There are several core groups navigating the world all at once, with Carnage Radio inducing tonal and narrative whiplash as it shifts from the investigation, to the radio station, to the local theater, and then back again. Someone is killing listeners to Brad’s show, though that’s never the sole drive.

The killer reveal happens relatively early, adding intrigue and some effective cat-and-mouse chasing, though Carnage Radio, committed to its own elevation, never lingers long enough on the best conventions of the genre. Trying something new isn’t an innately bad thing, but doing so without a solid foundation can be. At its worst, Carnage Radio subverts a script it never had in the first place.

Fun characters, a setting dripping with personality, and some key directorial talent from Fite yield promise. Constrained, no doubt, by the resources available, Carnage Radio is a broadcast worth tuning into it. You might not be the first or the tenth caller, but when someone picks up, you’re bound to hear at least something you liked.

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