When a circus arrives in a small town, their prized attraction in a captured Jersey Devil gets loose into the surrounding woodlands and forces the towns' sheriff to not only go out and stop the creature running wild on the townspeople as well as the carnival folks from their ire.This here was a surprisingly good and enjoyable Sci-Fi Channel creature feature. One of the best parts here is that there's a lot of great encounters with the creature, as the film has a really big number of interactions with the creature which has a lot of great qualities. The first big scene, where the victims encounter it out in the woods several times, first in a spectacularly creepy barn and later out in the open, provide some fantastic scenes. From the creature appearing in the barn but not known where to the chasing amongst the trees and finally the trap under the bridge, this one comes across as an energetic creepy sequence. An attack on a couple in a car is also quite good, the hunting party scenes where the townspeople try to get the creature are both quite fun and enjoyable watching their tactics to get at it while the creature just goes on the offensive. The big one, though, and what makes the film so fun, is the major action scenes at the end starting off as a multi-person brawl at the police station which turns into a fight against the creature and then turning into a full-scale attack at the carnival. Coming complete with some vicious kills, a ton of destruction, some explosions and some fun mini- moments that are strung together into a high-energy scene before the big battle with the creature making this one go out on a high mark as well. This gives the film a rather great pace, and with as much good encounters there is, it's quite fun. The creature itself is given a lot of face time and the gargoyle-like appearance doesn't look all that bad, and along with the film's rather nice amount of blood and gore, these here are the film's good points. There wasn't a whole lot really wrong with the film. One of the problems is that the escape of the creature comes a little too early in the film, barely twenty minutes in and without much of a set-up or anything. There's no suspense that it will fail, it just happens and it feels completely underwhelming because the thing breaks through with almost no difficulty and just flies away, lessening the impact even more as the whole scene is done way too quickly. The one-line back-story about what the thing is doesn't help, since it doesn't give off any information about it or even detailing the legend it's based on, and the creature's origins are a big mystery. The last flaw is the constant preaching of the pastor in the film about the sins of the carnival and what they mean in terms of religion. It's not enjoyable, comes across from a failed viewpoint as they are based on erroneous experiences and the whole thing is completely unnecessary. Otherwise, these are the film's problems.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

The carnival comes to town and it's evil promoter, Cap(Alan C Peterson)has a new sideshow attraction, a winged creature hungry for human blood who has broken free from it's steel cage. Sheriff Atlas(Lou Diamond Phillips) has a lot to contend with as locals begin to fall victim to the beast. Cap is so absolutely vile he guts his own trusting servant, Quinn(Dominic Cuzzocrea)just so that he can capture the creature by using the smell of blood from the poor guy as a means to lure the monster. We get a glimpse at just how abominable Cap is when he stabs the man in the back who delivered him the creature. Through Cab's mystic, Samara(Simone-Elise Girard), we learn as she is speaking with Atlas that the creature just may be the Jersey Devil. Adding to Atlas' troubles is the local fire-and-brimstone priest, Father Owen(Vlasta Vrana) who, before the start of the carnival, was warning his citizens and neighbors of how this traveling freakshow would only bring horror to the town, a rallying cry of epic proportions, heaven and hell, good and evil kind of stuff. When Father Owen's son dies at the hands of the monster, Atlas will have to not only deal with Cap, the monster, but the priest seeking vengeance as well. Surprisingly well made creature feature compared to past Sci-Fi channel offerings, actually has some decent special effects in regards to the monster's presence in the film. The filmmakers decide to shoot the creature out of focus just enough as it flies/swoops down in the background so that it won't be as glaring computer effect as we normally are used to seeing in a Sci-fi channel Saturday movie. Owen is so blind with his own rhetoric involving the carnival of freaks' responsibility for bringing the monster in town that he encourages the locals to target them next. The priest is presented as an unsympathetic blowhard inciting negative emotions, not following the doctrines of peace and tolerance he supposed to which is why when the creature is loosened once again to hunt you care not if he is ripped to smithereens. Phillips slips comfortably into the small town hero role without a hitch, having starred in more than his share of B-movies, understanding this genre all too well. Not a lot of carnage as you might expect(there could've been more body parts and torn flesh), but there's at least a tongue removal by a knife, and because of the creature's brownish gargoyle-like color(it reminded me of the beast from JEEPERS CREEPERS a bit), this allows it to integrate fairly well within the darkly autumnal surroundings. The exciting climax has a ferris wheel toppling over thanks to Atlas trying to use whatever he can to finally rid his town of the monster, with a rather bleak resolution as many of the carnival freaks suffer devastating fates thanks to mostly Owen's doing. CARNY allows Phillips to save the day, at a huge cost.

When side-show circus owned by Cap (A.C. Peterson) arrives in Reliance, the greedy owner kills the driver that brings the new attraction – the Jersey Devil – and his henchman dumps the severed body in the woods and the trunk in the muddy lake. The local sheriff Atlas (Lou Diamond Phillips) checks the permits of the carnival under the protests of the deranged pastor Owen (Vlasta Vrana) that does not want the abominations in the small town. In the opening show, the Jersey Devil escapes and attacks the audience, killing Owen's son. Atlas organizes a hunting party to kill the monster, while Cap and his partner try to capture it alive to sell to a wealthy investor. Meanwhile Owen rises up the locals against the monster and the performers of the freak show with tragic consequences. "Carny" is really a terrible movie. The story and the screenplay are awful, with a ridiculous conclusion; the development of the one- dimensional characters is shallow, even for the lead ones; and the Jersey Devil and the special effects are very poor. The acting is affected by the script and the silly lines and the poor actors and actresses unfortunately can not do better than they do. I like B-movies but this one sucks. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "Carnívoro" ("Carnivore")

I was pleasantly surprised by this Sci-Fi Channel entry. There were some credible makeup and physical effects, a number of competent actors supporting a script that avoided many of the more common clichés for what has become its own genre, the Sci-Fi Channel monster flick usually produced in Canada.Lou Diamond Phillips stars, cast yet again as a small town sheriff battling things that fly and/or creep whilst chewing scenery, secondary characters and extras at will. It isn't BATS, but its not a crap fest either. Another treat -- the music did not appear to be library music but supported the scenes rather well. A genuine jump inducer in the 2nd act and some graphic gore and another jump in the 3rd made this a "7" in my book.Oh yeah, and a minimum of shaky camera work and random zooming in and out. Bless the D of P for not inflicting that on the audience.