The Carnivores

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The Carnivores

Released Jun 4, 2021

1h 17m

Mystery & Thriller

Comedy

Drama

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

76%

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21 Reviews

20%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Alice and Bret's dog Harvie is dying, and he's ruining everything. What had been a bright little family is quickly being consumed by clouds of self-doubt, suspicion, and a disturbing amount of ground beef. Bret (Lindsay Burdge) is taking the news hard. She's had Harvie since before the relationship and is startled to find just how much of her sense of self is wrapped up in her history with him. Alice (Tallie Medel) thus finds herself on the outside of a relationship looking in. Bret's obsession with the dog is getting overtly unhealthy, yet the more Alice attempts to connect, the further Bret retreats. As the stress on Alice, a vegan, manifests in increasingly strange ways involving sleepwalking and a fascination with meat, she plans to get rid of Harvie to reclaim Bret's love. But when Alice wakes one night holding an empty leash with no sign of Harvie except his severed ear, she begins to fear she's become a monster. As each woman sets out in search of what's been lost, Alice and Bret uncover parts of each other they never suspected, hideous and beautiful alike.

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Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Medel's perfectly raw and queasily realistic performance of an already insecure mind coming wholly unhinged, and cinematographer Adam J. Minnick's canted camera setups and dreamy-dreary color palette, The Carnivores is a slow burning bad dream.

Rated: 3.5/5

Jun 5, 2021

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Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

The characters don't exist solely to affirm the film's various themes, and as a result, their humanity gets under your skin.

Rated: 3/4

May 31, 2021

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Brian Tallerico

RogerEbert.com

There's something daring and memorable about Johnson's vision of possible mental illness and marital strife.

Mar 20, 2020

Full Review

Ben Flanagan

Vague Visages

“Johnson doesn’t create a specific sense of place in ‘The Carnivores,’ nor does he develop the characters into anything more than cyphers for American angst that a million Sundance films have delivered before.”

Feb 10, 2024

Full Review

Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

Superbly well shot, this offbeat drama has a wonderfully observant quality to it, allowing characters and story elements to emerge organically amid scenes that are skilfully improvised.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 11, 2021

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Alan Zilberman

Spectrum Culture

It is difficult to care about a couple when both parties are deeply unpleasant.

Rated: 2.5/5

Jun 8, 2021

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Audience Member

The term "psychological thriller" totally applies here. You can scoff and ask "What the hell is going on?" through the whole movie if you want, but that means it's not your kind of movie. The story is of anxiety and its potential tyranny over life, and our ability to control it is not a question of will. My only critique is of how long the miserable situation is sustained. (And what about that ending? I take it literally - YMMV. It works, though, either way.) Don't get grossed out. Just watch it. It's worth your time.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

scott c

Confusing and boring. The only entertaining part was the weird coworker who was funny. Main characters were unlikable and the plot is just bizarre. Waste of 90 minutes.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The concept is offbeat but good. The relationship between this lesbian couple is non-believable. It feels like they were just roommates and not really into each other either. The sleepwalk thing is non-believable either. I don't even know what is the point to this movie to be honest and if there were, i doubt it was significant.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

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Caleb Michael Johnson

Director

Caleb Johnson

Director

Tallie Medel

Alice

Lindsay Burdge

Bret

Frank Mosley

Dog-Man

Vincent James Prendergast

Roland

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Synopsis

Alice and Bret's dog Harvie is dying, and he's ruining everything. What had been a bright little family is quickly being consumed by clouds of self-doubt, suspicion, and a disturbing amount of ground beef. Bret (Lindsay Burdge) is taking the news hard. She's had Harvie since before the relationship and is startled to find just how much of her sense of self is wrapped up in her history with him. Alice (Tallie Medel) thus finds herself on the outside of a relationship looking in. Bret's obsession with the dog is getting overtly unhealthy, yet the more Alice attempts to connect, the further Bret retreats. As the stress on Alice, a vegan, manifests in increasingly strange ways involving sleepwalking and a fascination with meat, she plans to get rid of Harvie to reclaim Bret's love. But when Alice wakes one night holding an empty leash with no sign of Harvie except his severed ear, she begins to fear she's become a monster. As each woman sets out in search of what's been lost, Alice and Bret uncover parts of each other they never suspected, hideous and beautiful alike.

Director: Caleb Michael Johnson, Caleb Johnson
Producer: Caleb Michael Johnson, Thomas Fernandes, Heather Johnson, Adam J. Minnick, Jeff Bay Smith, Ted Speaker
Screenwriter: Caleb Michael Johnson, Jeff Bay Smith
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Production Co: Cervidae Films, Silver Spectral
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Comedy, Drama, Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 4, 2021, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 4, 2021
Runtime: 1h 17m

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