'CAROUSHELL 2'
Killer unicorn gets paternal in locally shot horror-comedy
Steve Rudzinski usually doesn’t like when people try to pitch him ideas for a movie. But this one was different.
“We should make a movie called ‘CarousHELL’ that’s about a killer carousel horse,” Aleen Isley said. “No, wait, a killer carousel unicorn.”
Rudzinski was immediately intrigued and asked her what the unicorn’s motivation for murder was. She took a beat before replying: “Some fat kid just abuses the unicorn on a carousel so badly he hunts the kid down.”
Rudzinski, 34, of Coraopolis, went on to direct and co-write with Isley the 2016 horrorcomedy “CarousHELL,” which introduced Duke the violent carousel unicorn and grew into a cult classic among fans of schlocky horror. Now there’s a sequel, “CarousHELL 2,” that finds Duke — still voiced by Steve Rimpici — trying to start a new life with his son, Robbie.
“CarousHELL 2” was shot in April mostly at locations in Canonsburg and Coraopolis. The original “CarousHELL” is available to buy and rent via Amazon Prime Video, and both Blu- ray and DVD versions of “CarousHELL 2” can be purchased at silverspotlightfilms.storenvy.com. The sequel will also have its Pittsburgh premiere at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont. Tickets are available at www.hollywoodtheaterpgh.org.
“This is a really weird, unique, fun horror-comedy with a lot of heart, love and laughs that I thought was important to shoot in this year and use as many people in this area as I could to give people around here a spotlight they usually don’t have,” Rudzinski said. “Even if it’s half as successful as the first one, it’s going to be very big.”
Horror-comedies have been Rudzinski’s calling card since his 2011 short, “The Slasher Hunter.” He didn’t realize how big the first “CarousHELL” had gotten until he started seeing social-media chatter about it and horror podcasters began approaching him to be a guest on their shows.
This “CarousHELL” reverses course from the original with “a kid you love and want to protect with everything you have,” Rudzinski said. Robbie, a puppet who is voiced and controlled by actor B. Barnabei, was intended to be “the Baby Yoda of unicorn children,” Rudzinski said, referring to the ultra-adorable character from Disney+’s “The Mandalorian.”
He adds that the inanimate Duke is the best actor he’s ever worked with because “he’s always in the right spot.” Jokes aside, he knows viewers may be put off by the greater focus on comedy and family elements in “CarousHELL 2.” He says it still has all the horror of the original.
“The soul of the movie is still in here,” Rudzinski said. “It’s just growing up a little bit because of what Duke is going through. ... If I can make someone feel happy or better or optimistic, even if it’s just for 70 minutes out of a day, that’s really important.”
Isley, 35, of Coraopolis, returned as a cowriter of “CarousHELL 2” and took on the role of Ilsa, a Nazi hellbent on ruining Duke’s plans to live peacefully with Robbie. The Hundred Acres Manor and ScareHouse veteran has always loved the campier elements of horror. As an actor, she aspires to be “the curvier, lady version of Doug Jones,” an actor known for playing motion-capture creatures in sci-fi and monster movies.
“I revel in playing the monster,” she said. “I like being the scary, the evil, the awful. We need more strong female villains in media. A Nazi is basically just another version of a monster. They just don’t have prosthetics.”
She and Rudzinski said they would be down to make a third “CarousHELL” if this sequel does well financially and garners
enough goodwill. Isley said there’s already a basic plot outline for a threequel.
They hope to entice Scott Lewis, 50, of Carrick to come back for a third outing if the opportunity arises. He was the cinematographer, editor and visual effects handler on both “CarousHELL” films who subscribes to an ethos of “the bloodier, the better.”
“How can you make a scary horror movie about a carousel unicorn that kills people with ninja stars?” he said. humor “We embraced and everyone the horror we hired to be in the movie understood that and went 100%. It’s the Leslie Nielsen school of acting. The dumbest things you’re saying have to mean everything to you, and you believe it. And the audience will too.”
As lovable as Robbie is, Lewis found him difficult to shoot because of all the wires and puppeteers he had to keep out of shots. That made the movie tough to edit as well. His big takeaway from “CarousHELL 2”: “I’m never working with [expletive] puppets again.”
That said, he hopes Pittsburghers will recognize the time and energy that went into “CarousHELL 2.” So does Rudzinksi.
“The team that worked on this really brought their Agame,” he said. “They did a really good job during a really weird period of time. They went through some risk to bring joy to strangers all over the world. And that means a lot.”