Aahana Swrup
In ‘Carved,’ the menacing monster on the loose begins her reign of terror in a small town called Cedar Creek. In celebration of the year’s spooky season, the grounds manager, Bill, launches the state’s first-ever Pioneer village—a historical reenactment of the 1700s. Consequently, the village holds a pumpkin carving contest to honor the times-old tradition. However, the competition unravels in wildly unpredictable ways after one peculiar pumpkin decides to strike back at the humans. Therefore, with a monster pumpkin at large—who seeks revenge for years of de-gutting—the Pioneer Village soon dissolves into a nightmare, leaving Kira and her friends to rely on their wits for survival.
Even though the film’s outrageously eccentric premise steals most of the audience’s attention, the setting puts up a considerable fight in terms of peculiarity. Consequently, after backlighting most of the narrative, Cedar Creek’s Pioneer Village of the 1700s is bound to become a point of interest.
The Pioneer Village of Cedar Creek is not a Real Place
In ‘Carved,’ the narrative picks up an off-beat premise from the start and delves into it headfirst, reveling in all the eccentricities the storyline affords. Consequently, the fictionality of its story remains consistently evident. As it turns out, the film maintains the same level of fiction in relation to its setting. Cedar Creek’s Pioneering Village, a place built to reenact the historical time of the 1700s, is not a real place in Maine. Maine sports no similarly christened towns or living history museums in real life, rendering the on-screen depiction a complete work of fiction.
Still, the idea of a living museum—even one in Maine—isn’t necessarily departed from reality. A Pioneering Village did open in Maine shortly after the establishment of the Washburn-Norlands Foundation in 1973. Consequently, a living history museum persists in The Norlands in Maine even today. Nevertheless, the particular area is known for its reenactment and preservation of life in the 1800s. Much like Cedar Creek’s fictional Pioneering Village, this museum also boasts costumed interpreters who perform the lives of real people from the past. Nonetheless, the two places have nothing else in common except for conceptual similarities.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that the on-screen village was based on the real-life Norlands. As such, Cedar Creek’s Pioneering Village seems to be confined to the fictional narrative of ‘Carved.’ In the film, the Living History Museum offers another quirky detail to an abundantly bizarre premise. Furthermore, it also adds dynamic visuals to the film from the get-go, intriguing the viewers and capturing their attention even before the monstrous pumpkin shows up on the screen. On the other hand, it provides the perfect in-universe excuse for an array of unrelated characters to band together and face an impossible challenge. Thus, even though the Cedar Creek Pioneering Village is a fictional place, it presents a realistic backdrop for an outlandish story.
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