Closed for the Season (2010)

A woman, Kristy, wakes up in an abandoned amusement park where she is scared half to death by some creepy attractions come to life.  She runs and stumbles on a house where a young man is sleeping.  He goes with her to help her escape the park, but they both end up running into a carny that may or may not be a ghost of some sort.  He takes pleasure in scaring the heck out of them and even when they think they have escaped they are pulled back in.  Eventually Kristy realizes that she has a strange connection to the young man that has been trying to help her and that there might be more going on then she realizes.

Not sure what I can say about Closed for the Season.  I live near the abandoned amusement park where this was shot so I really wanted to like this movie.  And it does have some good points.  The story has moments where it is very interesting and I liked the payoff at the end.  I really didn’t see that coming, though I knew there had to be a twist.  The director, Jay Woelfel, also does a great job using the park as if it were another character.  The abandoned buildings and rides really are creepy and add some atmosphere to the movie.  We also get some good performances from the actors, especially Joe Unger as the crazy carny.  Since I’m mentioning how well the director captured the locations I will also mention that I liked the practical effects.  We get one or two small bits of gore with a hand getting loped off and some neck chewing, but this isn’t a gore fest.  My favorite bit of effects work has to do with a lake monster that is a nifty looking rubber suit.  The movie, with one terrible exception, manages to avoid too much CGI.  This is a good thing on the sort of budget they had. 

But in spite of all the good things that I’ve said about it I must say that Closed for the Season has some real serious pacing issues.  The movie is almost 2 hours long and it really doesn’t need to be.  Towards the end we see the characters make an escape, only to have them not make it.  There is an entire sequence of events that just don’t make sense and do nothing to move the story along.  It also takes way too long for the characters and situation to get set up.  Far too much time is spent rehashing the situation again and again.  Basically what I’m trying to get across is that the movie is boring and was a chore to get thru.  Again I did like some of the stuff in it, but sadly it is lost in the mess. 

Other then the novelty of seeing the old Chippewa Lake Park in a movie I don’t see that this one has much going for it.  It isn’t terrible but is at best mediocre. 

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer