Wow. I had really high hopes. The makeup and art direction were excellent. GREAT costuming. The story, music and lyrics were atrocious, self indulgent and pedantic and the whole production screamed of low budget, gay, off Broadway theater.Imagine if Tim Burton lost a bet and was forced to direct a movie written by a 15 year old with a circus clown fetish.But the worst part of this story is that the libretto/Lyrics lacked any sort of meter or cohesiveness. The lyrics stubbornly refuse to rhyme or even stay relevant to the song. There is no sense of structure to the song. AND then the author repeats these mistakes as if to highlight them. My Imitation of the fault in the lyrics"Reds are Red Violets are blue, no one is going to help the sheep remain in the light that muddies the water." no one is going to help the sheep remain in the light that muddies the water." no one is going to help the sheep remain in the light that muddies the water."No meter, no rhyme, poor structure. Very little to see here. Poor Paul Sorvino.

"The Devil's Carnival" is very much a Darren Lynn Bousman's pet project. It's unmistakable for anything else and that means if you liked his previous work in "Repo! The Genetic Opera" you'll be familiar with the style of horror and rock opera presented in this short film, so you'll enjoy it a lot. The plot? Well I can't say I can really recall it very well and some of It is because it's confusing at times. I remember a lot of cool visuals, some similarities with Aesop's fables, demons, knife-throwing, Bill Moseley in makeup and Alexa Vega looking pretty sexy. In all honesty it's not my fault, this is a picture that you kind of need to watch more than once.While the songs aren't as polished as the ones in his previous work, the sets and costumes are impressive and for a low budget production, it looks great. I found the story to be scrambled though, which frustrated me because I love the idea of this demonic carnival (and I've always wanted to see it done well since I saw "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story). The upside is that if you like it, the picture is short so you'll be able to watch it multiple times to clarify the confusing bits. Similarly, it's a lot of style over substance and if at first you don't really care for it, it's just not your thing. It's a love it, or hate it kind of thing and I bet the way to really appreciate It would be to view it with someone who's already fallen In love with it and can clarify some of the plot elements or give you factoids on all of those cool little details. I enjoyed it enough that I think you should check it out, if only to see If It will be your kind of thing. (On DVD, November 15, 2012)

A few years ago I was really into Emilie Autumn and I had seen Repo! around that time because of the Emilie Autumn fan group. But I really didn't pay attention to her after early 2011.I found out about a month ago that Emilie had a new album and stared in the devil's carnival, which I had heard was a great sequel to Repo!. I listened to the soundtrack even before watching the movie and adored it. I felt the songs and what I had seen of the fantastic costumes and make-up held up to my love of Repo!. But once I finally saw the movie, I was sadly underwhelmed.The concept was fascinating but it lacked a well structured storyline for each character in the carnival. I wanted more from the scorpion and I wish Emilie & The Bloody Crumpets characters had spoken parts. I just overall felt it should have been longer as well, it was too short IMHO. Maybe if it was longer the characters could have been developed better, who knows??? Still in love with the soundtrack, I'll hold that dear to me but never gonna get over how underwhelmed I was with the characters in the movie. If you love Repo! I probably wouldn't recommend watching this.

I loved Repo! The Genetic Opera so I thought I would at least like this. Did I? Well, the concept was interesting and there were, like, two catchy songs (one that played in the middle of the end credits). However, I didn't feel anything for the characters and I found myself checking the time throughout most of it. As for the music, I guess I was expecting more rocky tunes like the ones in Repo. I quickly learned that this is nothing like the movie I saw 20 times (and counting).The Devil's Carnival isn't the worst film ever, but it's not a film I would willingly watch again.