The plot of the film...concerns a carnival. People run through it, other people in green pancake makeup shamble after them, and a guy with a massive forehead sometimes wears Dracula teeth.

Well, I'll say one thing for Malatesta's Carnival of Blood: it's a damn horror movie. Not a thriller or a giallo or survival or psychological drama or whatever movies try to call themselves trying to avoid the horror label. You could play this during an adult Halloween party. In fact that's probably the best use of the product since it's more entertaining when you aren't paying attention and just look up when the movie's tripping on goofballs. I've read plot synopses but no, don't believe them, there are no genuine events in the picture.

There is however a conspicuous absence of such, along with plenty of bad acting, awkward camera trick kills, candy red gore, all the things you're looking for in a grindhouse era movie with a long title. You could watch this with Manos, the Hands of Fate and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies and have a seamless four hour fever nightmare.

Is it performance art or just a bad movie? How does the attraction stay in business with a 100% murder rate? And how does that guy's revolver fire wihtout the hammer moving? These are examples of things to not think about when you notice a carnival out the corner of your bleary left eye.