Horror Movie Review: CarousHELL 2 (2021)

Released in 2016, CarousHELL was a dumb but entertaining slasher horror film from director Steve Rudzinski, who co-wrote it with Aleen Isley. In it, Duke a carousel unicorn, snapped after a lifetime of being treated poorly and went on a murderous rampage. You can read our full review here.

It was very silly, but a lot of fun too. So, it’s no surprise that Duke wasn’t done.

Directed again by Steve Rudzinski who co-wrote the story with Aleen Isley again, CarousHELL 2 is not the sequel fans of the original will be expecting. You see, in a surprisingly turn of events, Duke (Steve Rimpici) steps out of the villain role and into the hero role. Finding out that he has a son named Robbie (Brittany Barnebei) who is being cared for by Ms. Laurence (Judy Kirby) so decides to be a father to the boy.

Duke wants to raise him properly, but his past is about to catch up with him. Not the events of the first film (although that is touched upon) but his past as a Nazi experiment. It turns out that Duke was created for a purpose and some of the Nazi’s responsible are still looking for him. Led by the evil Ilsa (Aleen Isley), the organisation made up of Otto (Terence Lee Cover), Klaus (Mark McConnell Jr), and Katrina (Rebecca Rinehart) will do anything to get their hands back on Duke, including using Robbie for their nefarious schemes.

CarousHELL 2 is as absurd as it sounds, yet words just can’t do the silliness justice. Fans of the original may find themselves completely turned off by the tone shift in this film, but this whole concept was stupid from the start, so it’s fun to see it go completely off the rails. Which it really does at times. Not only trying to seriously tell a story about a father and son, who just happen to be carousel unicorns, but also throwing in groan-worthy humour, plenty of blood and guts, and even sex.

It’s a wild ride, that’s for sure, and it shouldn’t work.

Why it does work in the end is because everyone is committed to the experience and wholly convinced that this story involving carousel unicorns and Nazis needs to be told. You don’t have to be mental to create a film like CarousHELL 2, but it probably helps.

By all conventional standards, it’s a terrible film. Yet, we have so many good films, why not enjoy a bad one every so often? Especially when one as committed and insane as CarousHELL 2 comes along.