‘American Carnage’ is a horror comedy that follows a group of youths who are detained following an executive order from the governor, ordering the arrest of the children of undocumented immigrants. The teenagers are then given the option to work in a care facility for the elderly in exchange for having the charges dropped.
The film opens on a montage of clips from the media and news, depicting the increasing number of rallies and heated debates regarding undocumented immigrants in the US. The focus then shifts to JP, a teenager working at ‘Lady Liberty’s’ a chain fast-food joint. Ordering via drive-through, his sister Lily prompts him to be home at 8, - she’s been accepted at Columbia University and they’re organizing a party.
At home amidst celebration, ‘ICE’ troops break in and detain JP and Lily, whilst dragging their mother away separately. Being split up, we follow JP as he discovers that he is detained for knowingly harbouring an illegal immigrant and can have the charges against him dropped if he volunteers at a retirement facility in care for the elderly.
There, JP meets fellow detainees, - Camila, Big Mac, Chris and Micah. The group notice something is off, with Chris refusing to eat, believing a conspiracy that the food and water is tainted with chemicals or medication. JP notices an elderly woman who he is draw to, but soon dismisses it, as the facility director, Eddie explains that a lot of the residents suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
One morning the group gather for a meal and realise Chris is gone, with one of the orderlies explaining that he tried to escape, so was taken back to the detention centre. Unconvinced, the group decide to investigate, with Big Mac and Micah discovering blueprints to the facility, showing underground structures below the building.
Having swindled one of the orderlies keys, JP roams the facility to meet up with the rest of the gang, then spending the night with Micah. The following day, JP returns to the elderly woman he was drawn to and discovers it to be Lily, but aged beyond recognition. He is then subdued and betrayed by Micah who turns out to have been working with Eddie all along, revealing that they were being medicated through the food in the facility, tenderising them for processing into food, with the accelerated ageing being an unexpected side effect working to their advantage. Eddie is shown meeting with the governor who imposed the executive order, only to reveal them to be working together, trapping and turning the detained people into meat for the ‘Lady Liberty’ chain, noting how no one looks for immigrants, especially if they are elderly.
Chained up in the facility basement, JP manages to break free and a brawl ensues between the orderlies and the facility residents. JP encounters Eddie, and together with Camila and Big Mac, the trio manage to subdue him and escape the facility. The film closes on news reports breaking the controversial story, with shots of scientists working towards reversing the damage done to the children.
‘American Carnage’ is sold as a horror comedy, yet the film lacks elements of either genre to constitute that designation. Rather bland and unsurprising, the film contains relatively little by way of comedic scenes and hardly any tense or suspenseful moments, besides a single scene where Big Mac witnesses an elderly man expire, as he contorts his body into unimaginable and frightening positions due to the medication he has been subject to.
Instead, the film delivers a not-so-subtle metaphor for the capitalist system in the United States as literally consuming immigrant workers. The film opens with an intensely startling news montage, highlighting the level of threat and danger that immigrants face in the ‘land of opportunity’, with its undocumented inhabitants being denigrated and subject to mistreatment. Even though the opening credits are enticing and seem to promise tackling the issue in a sharp and witty manner, what follows is about 90 minutes of a middle-of-the-road teen slasher that lacks in mystery, horror or anything new to offer any genre.
There is a certain lack of originality to the film that allows the viewer to be painfully aware of every story beat and turn that is to come, with the final reveal of the feature leaving no one surprised. The cast is comprised of Jorge Lendeborg, Jenna Ortega, Allen Maldonado, Jorge Diaz and Bella Ortiz as the group of detained youths and Eric Dante and Brett Cullen as the facility director and the governor respectively. The group manage to create a natural and fun dynamic, yet it does little to save the overall feel to the story.
The film is especially disappointing regarding its villains, - besides their very obvious hidden malicious intentions, the evil-doers seem to be one step away from becoming mustache-twirling cartoons, as they hit nothing but tired cliches and beats of deplorable and incorrigible individuals, unexamined beyond their sole aim of being evil.
‘American Carnage’ is clear in highlighting the mishandling of undocumented immigrants in the US, putting the mistreatment of such individuals at the forefront and noting the dehumanizing way in which they are treated. Disappointingly so, the film fails to take advantage of its spry and energetic cast to deliver what could have been a fun yet intense slasher. In its stead, we have before us a predictable and tired movie, filled with revelations that can be seen coming a mile away with performances that do nothing to enhance the overall quality of the film.
Score: 1/4
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