Carpenter, The (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Mar 21, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
David WellingtonRelease Date(s)
1988 (March 25, 2025)Studio(s)
Gold Gems Ltd./Cineglobe (Vinegar Syndrome)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Horror films can cover many different areas—monsters, the supernatural, psychological terror, slashers, Gothic eeriness, and human-made abominations, to name just a few. The Carpenter, a low-budget Canadian film, is a kind of hybrid built around a young woman and her unusual relationship with a skilled craftsman.
The film begins with Alice Jarett (Lynne Adams, Silent Hunter) removing her husband’s suit from the closet and methodically cutting it into pieces with a pair of scissors. Husband Martin (Pierre Lenoir, Grey Owl) comes home from teaching his college lit classes to discover Alice calmly going about her self-appointed task. With little transition, we see that Martin has committed Alice to a sanitarium for treatment.
While Alice is away, Martin purchases a house in the country as a quiet place for her to recuperate. The house needs work and when Alice gets there, renovations are in progress. One night, she’s awakened by noises. Following the sounds, she finds a lone carpenter (Wings Hauser, Dead Man Walking) in the basement putting up walls. Alice asks why he’s working so late. He says there’s a lot of work and he wants to make sure it gets done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Reassured by the man’s gentle manner, Alice accepts his odd behavior and returns to bed.
As one might think, there’s more to this man than meets the eye. He seems to be a sort of protector of the house and of Alice. That his protective instincts are manifested in gruesome killings with assorted power tools, among them an electric hand saw, a nail gun and a huge drill, doesn’t seem to bother Alice. On the contrary, she’s fascinated, and a bond grows between herself and the carpenter.
Meanwhile, Martin is having an affair with one of his students (Louise-Marie Mennier, Moody Beach) and spending more and more time away from home. When he does come home, his behavior toward Alice is cold and distant.
A sense of surrealism pervades the film and many questions arise. Why is Alice so complacent about grim killings that occur in the house? Why isn’t she terrified of the carpenter? Is the carpenter real or the hallucination of an insane person? Are we seeing Alice’s nightmares or are the events really happening? The script keeps the viewer wondering, which creates suspense.
As the carpenter, Hauser must make a cold-blooded killer seem almost chivalrous. One minute, he’s shooting staples into a victim’s forehead and the next he’s having a tender chat with Alice. In the carpenter’s mind, his victims deserve their fate and he’s his own judge and jury in determining their punishment. In contrast, his relationship with Alice humanizes him. What’s with this guy? As the film progresses, we learn the background of the unnamed carpenter and why he’s so protective of the house and its latest inhabitant, the fragile Alice.
Hauser’s character displays a pleasant smile when he speaks to Alice. When dispatching one of his victims, he does it without emotion, as if he’s merely taking care of a job not unlike his work on the house.
Adams is able to project a blank look while also showing fascination with the carpenter. Much of her performance is in her reactions to the carpenter. She witnesses his bloody murders, yet regards them as casually as if they were nothing unusual. Her performance keeps us on our toes.
Not traditionally leading man material, Lenoir as Martin comes off appropriately as stodgy and remote. Martin is an unsympathetic character. He never talks to his wife and instantly commits her to a mental institution on seeing her engage in odd behavior, as if he’s seizing on this one incident as a reason to get rid of her. His cold, rigid, humorless, faithless behavior encourages us to empathize with Alice, a warm, sensitive woman who’s essentially abandoned by him in her time of need.
Director David Wellington and writer Doug Taylor create an otherworldly atmosphere in The Carpenter. The film has a dreamlike quality and we often see Alice’s nightmares. Her state of mind is intentionally left ambiguous. Does her previous nervous breakdown mean that she slipped into the deep end? Is she imagining a person that doesn’t exist? Or has the stress of her recent illness and her husband’s infidelity turned her into a vengeful accomplice?
Despite the gruesome killings, The Carpenter is not a typical slasher film. The first murder, in which both of a victim’s arms are severed, is poorly staged and looks totally artificial. Later killings are not as bloody as one might expect, with shadows helping to obscure their most grisly aspects. This might disappoint those who enjoy gory kills, but it does put the focus on the character of the carpenter rather than on his methods of execution. He uses devices with which he’s familiar—in his case, power tools.
Performances are uniformly good, with no weak links in the cast. Unlike many low-budget horror films, this one doesn’t telegraph where it’s heading. Director Wellington avoids many horror cliches in favor of a dream-like ambiance that drives the narrative. Hauser gives depth to his character and there’s even a Beauty and the Beast vibe between the carpenter and Alice.
Director of photography David Franco shot The Carpenter on 35 mm color film with Panavision cameras and lenses, processed by Sololab Inc., Montreal, Quebec, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray is newly scanned and restored in 2K from a 35 mm release print. According to information on screen that precedes the film, The Carpenter is “presented in its fully uncut original version, restored from the sole known and believed surviving film element, a 35 mm release print.” Because the print suffered censorship, some of the more gruesome moments were cut. A D2 master, the best available video copy of the unedited version, was used to fill in the missing sections. For the most part, the Blu-ray is sharp, with effective rendering of shadows and gossamer-like images and gliding camera movements. The picture is nearly perfect except that at the 20:34 mark, a thin greenish scratch runs down the center of the screen. Most of the kills occur in deep shadow at night, so excessive gore is avoided.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an available option. Dialogue is clear and distinct but there’s an echo-y quality in many indoor scenes, likely because the film was shot in an actual house, without proper sound muffling. Sound effects include ambient noise of workmen hammering, assorted electric power tools, screams of pain, crackling fire, bodies being pummeled, indistinct noises coming from inside the house, and a pickup truck’s engine.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome include the following:
- Audio Commentary with David Wellington and Doug Taylor
- Audio Commentary with William Morris and John Dickson
- Aggressively Itself (33:02)
- Tools to Play With (7:38)
Commentary #1 – Director David Wellington and writer Doug Taylor refer to The Carpenter as a “Canadian gem.” They were in film school together, and The Carpenter was their first feature film. At the time, low-budget films were “cranked out” in Canada. The title told the viewer mayhem and power tools would be involved. The screenplay was written quickly and was never conceived to be cynical. “We were kind of winging it.” Wellington and Taylor were looking to elevate a splatter flick to a statement on feminism. Money was always an issue. They were able to get the house used in the film at no cost and were permitted to destroy walls and set a fire in the basement. There was no studio-style interference except that the producer wanted more nudity and more blood and gore. Wellington steered clear of nudity. There’s a fever-dream sense to the film. The reality of the film is different from expectations. Many dissolves suggest numerous camera set-ups and a longer shoot.
Commentary #2 – William Morris and John Dickson of The Oscarbate Film Collective podcast say that The Carpenter goes against typical parameters of the slasher film. It has “slasher seasoning” and is more thoughtful. It may have influenced Candyman. The evocative synthesizer score adds drama. The filmmakers were able to create a surrealistic milieu with limited resources. A Nightmare on Elm Street revitalized the slasher film which, in turn, was influenced by the Italian horror movies of directors Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. By 1985, the box office for horror films was slumping and self-parodies were being produced. Many horror films were sequels and others went straight to video. The commentators provide an insightful look at the history of horror and slasher films of the 1980s. They describe Wing Hauser’s performance as subtle, ranging from horrific to comic. The Carpenter was made through Canada’s tax credit system, which began in the mid-1970s. The complex arrangement between the Canadian government and artists is explained in detail but basically, tax-payers’ dollars paid for the making of movies. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz gave the system respectability. Tax shelters were responsible for the making of such pictures as The Changeling, Murder by Decree, Meatballs, and Porky’s. “A lot of junk was made,” but the Canadian film industry was stimulated.
Aggressively Itself – Members of the cast and crew of The Carpenter discus the making of the film. Both the director and the writer came from film school “steeped in movie academia.” They wanted to make a slasher movie that showcased female empowerment. They didn’t overthink the plot. The script was written in three weeks. The title character is more of a protector than a monster and actor Wings Hauser is “absurd in a great way.” The visual effects supervisor speaks about staging the assorted killings. This was the first feature film of director of photography David Franco, who would go on to shoot many TV series. The aim of the film was to be subjective in its point of view. Many camera movements had a floating look, a detached quality. All the major actors were young and just starting out. Low-budget filmmaking gave many young filmmakers their first break. The Carpenter is “a great document of its time.”
Tools to Play With – Actor Wings Hauser talks about having trouble with immigration when he arrived in Montreal. The challenge was both to create his own character and to be responsible to the film. He speaks about his process in creating a character. Clips from The Carpenter are included. “There’s an audience out there that likes to see him step out of the box,” notes Hauser. Often, films are responded to in unanticipated ways.
The poster for The Carpenter suggests a routine slasher/splatter film, with the title character wielding a monstrous power drill. But there’s more to the picture than the kills. The carpenter is many things—enigmatic, kind, brutal, sensitive, caring, protective, and powerful. The combination of these elements makes him fascinating and a departure from movies in which murders are the major draw at the expense of careful characterization and nuance. I found myself enjoying the film more than I expected.
- Dennis Seuling