Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Here's your typical 1980's direct-to-video B-movie strictly for genre fans. A married couple move into a home that is under renovation not knowing that its haunted by the ghost of a maniacal carpenter (Wings Hauser). Unstable wife, Alice encounters the strong and confident Mr. Fix-it, and as soon as he starts murdering all of the antagonists in her life, including her cheating husband, she begins to fall in love with his devilish charm and demeanor. Its an average at best Canadian slasher story only worth seeing for one of Wings Hauser's intense and erratic performances. The murderous handyman constantly spews out dialog about old-fashioned "working man" values that make the plot seem disjointed and confused. Murders include: Arms amputated by circular saw, power drill to the chest, nail gun shots, head in a vice,...etc. Gore fans, don't get too excited. This is only slightly bloody unlike the "uncut" rating suggests, and the ending is silly and predicable.

When I finished watching this flick it appeared to me that it was made at the end of the eighties. I gave me a feeling of a seventies movie. And that's not so good. It came just after the slasher era and in a time when horror was not done by the majors. And it shows. It's a bit of supernatural thing of a carpenter coming back to his house after he got the electric chair. Sadly, it never becomes really bloody or messy. Even not when the carpenter kills the man of the women he loves. It is more a bit about affairs and how to compete with it. But things go from bad to worse and soon she, Alice, discovers that the man she falls in love with is a death person only to be hurt by destroying the house he build. Weird story, but so passé. Although the acting was okay, it fails nowadays in all ways. Still, up to today it is unavailable in all forms, it do pop up at flea markets on VHS and in the Benelux on DVD taken from a bad VHS rip.

Wouldn't it be so much cooler if John Carpenter had directed this movie? Then the box of the VHS could loudly announce "John Carpenter's … The Carpenter"! And also, it probably would have been a much better film if John directed it… "The Carpenter" is a rather weak and laughable 80's slasher movie that desperately tries to add in some deeper psychological themes, but fails. It centers on a beautiful, thirty-something housewife that just got released from a period in a mental institution because she cut up her husband's business suits for no apparent reason. They move into a new countryside house that still needs a lot of renovation and Alice stays indoors whilst her husband cheats on her with a hot blond chick. Meanwhile Alice falls in love with the reincarnation of carpenter Ed (portrayed by 80's stud Wings Hauser). Ed is an old-fashioned workaholic who died in the electric chair 40 years earlier after he went a little berserk and killed some people that didn't allow him to finish his work. Together, Alice and Ed butcher a couple of lazy handymen and talk about dancing. How adorable! It's a pretty ridiculous film overall, with too much talking and only a couple of demented murder scenes to make up for it. The killings are similar to the ones in the 'video-nasty' cult classic "The Toolbox Murders" (a nail gun, a bench vice…) but not nearly as gross or memorable. I always thought Wings Hauser is a bit of an idiot and didn't really like him in this role, neither. His tedious speeches about how "handy-work is holy" are implausible and not exactly terrifying. The climax is just plain retarded.

* POSSIBLE SPOILERS*Not very bloody and better than I anticipated, this movie to me seems more psychological than your typical "slasher" flick. Wings Hauser gives another wacko performance as the ghost of a serial killer that helps a woman whose husband is cheating on her. But then he goes too far.........A big thumbs up!!