Just because your movie brings together two fairly unrelated genres doesn't mean it is free from criticism, and "The Devil's Carnival" is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
The film follows the tales of three people as they explore the titular Devil's Carnival and they replay three classic fables. An interesting set-up with a lot of potential, but the writing is so heavy-handed that the message falls flat on its face.
As far as the plot is concerned there are a lot of good ideas, but watching the finished product is like a slow-motion train wreck. Nothing ends-up coming together. It doesn't matter if you have any good ideas for your movie if they aren't executed well. For example, there is this one gatekeeper-type character that keeps banging-on about "the rules" sporadically throughout the movie, but this never ends-up coming to anything and is left as one of many loose ends.
Most of the actors seem to be phoning it in for most of the film, which is particularly sad because there are a few people in this movie that working their hardest at giving a good performance.
All the shots are the same cookie-cutter bore: close up of the singer, cut to carnival audience, back to singer, slowly pan up from ground, repeat. This movie is "safe"--it takes no risks and gets nothing back from the audience as a result.
The music all sounds the same and the lyrics are not clever nor engaging. Rocky Horror Picture Show is a masterpiece of film, and I actually feel bad for having to compare it to this nonsense. Rocky Horror was clever and energetic--Devil's Carnival is just plain boring, with immediately forgettable song-writing and lacking any "spirit" of its own.
"The Devil's Carnival" is a terrible movie. Good makeup and good ideas are completely overshadowed by clunky writing, samey lyrics, unremarkable songs, and terrible acting and execution. Give it a miss.
