By Todd Garbarini

One of the strangest G-rated “family films” that I have ever seen is Al Adamson’s 1982 effort Carnival Magic, released by HD Cinema Classics by way of Film Chest Media Group. As a fan of the best genre efforts that were afforded by what is arguably the last truly great summer for movies in the United States, 1982 gave us Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Poltergeist, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, The Beastmaster and The Road Warrior. I must admit that I was stunned to learn of this film as I had not heard of it prior to its 2010 release on home video.

Filmed over three weeks in Gaffney, South Carolina and Shelby, North Carolina, Carnival Magic is, in the words of producer Elvin Feltner, “the story of a magician and a traveling carnival and his pet monkey, who just happens to be a talking monkey.” It is also a film that cannot make up its mind if it wants to be a slapstick comedy or a family film with dramatic adult themes. Starring a cluster of soap opera actors and actresses, producer Feltner does what any good producer does when faced with the rising costs of a film budget. He thinks outside the box and delivers a film that can easily be categorized as a cult favorite.

The carnival’s magician, Markov (played nicely by Don Stewart), can read people’s thoughts and levitate objects. Armed with his talking chimp Alex, they are the top crowd pleaser, easily making the wild animal trainer second banana and very jealous in the process. Hoping to regain his former glory, the trainer attempts to kidnap the chimp and give him to a medical laboratory for experimentation in the hopes of displacing his competition and making a good deal of money. Among this plot are a bevy of carnival beauties who dance, and a young adult romance that blossoms innocently.

I couldn’t help but think of Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (1981) while watching this film, as the carnival atmosphere always intrigued me since I saw the “Levitation” episode of Tales from the Darkside in May 1985.

The video transfer of the film is done from a recently unearthed 35mm theatrical print discovered lying in a warehouse (the original negative apparently was not among the finds unfortunately), but HD Cinema, a terrific company in their own right, has done a wonderful job of cleaning up the print with their restoration transfer. I honestly cannot wait to see what this company has up its sleeve in the months to come. If they can get their hands on low-budget, independently made films and do high definition transfers of them for new audiences, their future is surely bright.

There are a host of extras in this collection. A running audio commentary with cult film historian Joel Rubin and producer Feltner reveals a great deal of information regarding the making of the film. Although Carnival Magic was copyrighted in 1982, most people did not see the film until roughly a year later in select screenings, as it was difficult to find theaters willing to book the film. Mr. Feltner makes mention that the film was shot in 1981 in the video interview introduction, however historian Reuben points out that according to lab documents it was filmed in the previous year. When Mr. Feltner mentions that it was shot in 1982 on the audio commentary and become fairly adamant, it leads the audience to wondering why the discussion is up for debate when such information is easily verifiable. The subject is eventually put to bed when the outtakes that appear in the supplementary section clearly reveal the date of July 1980 on the film slate.

The remaining extras consist of twenty minutes of outtakes sans audio and a short “ before” and “after” restoration demo. What is most interesting is the inclusion of both the original television trailer and the theatrical trailer, wherein the former presents the film as a non-stop riot and the latter gives one the impression that they should expect something along the lines of Smokey and the Bandit. Rounding out the extras is an interesting slideshow which consists of newspaper clippings illustrating when the movie came to the respective filming locations, looking for extras to appear in the carnival scenes.

Regardless of one's opinion of the film's narrative, the movie stands as a time capsule of a more innocent era in American life, of small-town folks enjoying the summer with family and friends. The carnival sequences almost serve as a documentary of what life was like in 1980 for these people.

HD Cinema Classics gets it right by releasing this as a DVD and Blu-ray combo package, something that too few companies are doing even now. They are to be commended for offering the film in both formats, though Blu-ray is really the way to go due to the increased sharpness and definition. The colors really pop out in this format.

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