Line #29 Film/AlleluiaTheDevilsCarnival


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmjexodu4ndqwm15bml5banbnxkftztgwnzexnjeznje_v1.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:Where is YOUR Heaven hiding?]]
2
3	->''"Again!"''
4	--> -- '''Lucifer''', opening the first song
5
6	''Alleluia!'' is the sequel to ''Film/TheDevilsCarnival''. Lucifer continues sending condemned souls back to Heaven, including one Ms. Merrywood. This is the prelude to all-out war... but first, he needs to tell a robed figure a story about Heaven, "the Filly and the Lapdog" (cf. "[[Literature/AesopsFables The Ass and the Lapdog]]"). In this story, about what happens when a "filly," June (Music/EmilieAutumn) fraternizes with God's prize "lapdog," The Agent (Adam Pascal); additionally, the workings of Heaven are explored, introducing figures such as The Translators (Jimmy Urine and Chantal Claret), The Publicist (Ted Neeley), The Designer (Creator/DavidHasselhoff), The Librarian (Music/TechN9ne), and The Watchword (Creator/BarryBostwick).
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8	The film was released on a road tour in 2015. One trailer can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHd_4pwP8dE here]], or the promotional website [[http://thedevilscarnival.com/main here]].
9
10	----
11	!!Featured tropes in tonight's film include:
12	* AlmostKiss: June and Cora, several times. [[spoiler:Twin-as-Cora actually does kiss June.]]
13	* ArcWords: "Always Alleluia".
14	* BlackAndGreyMorality: You're very clearly supposed to be on Lucifer's side, but he'll be the first to admit he's "[[DoubleEntendre no saint]]."
15	* BreakTheCutie: June and Cora. [[spoiler: June was beaten and banished from Heaven, and ended up becoming the Painted Doll, while Cora had to watch all this happen to a friend she had feelings for, and was probably forbidden from expressing any sadness over it lest the same thing happen to her.]]
16	* {{Callback}}: The Painted Doll and [[spoiler:The Agent]] have a scene very similar to her meeting with John in the first film. She even makes [[spoiler: The Agent]] "drink a cup of her scorn" as mentioned in her song "Prick! Goes the Scorpion's Tale" from the first film.
17	* CampStraight: The Designer and most of the unnamed male angels are very camp, but The Designer is clearly attracted to the women in his employ.
18	* ChekhovsGun: The horseshoe pendant that the Agent gives to June is a non-chronological example. [[spoiler: The audience first sees it when Merrywood picks it up on the train ride to Heaven. Then in a flashback, we see that the Agent was the one who originally gave the pendant to June, who ended up losing it to the Twin in Hell, which foreshadows the later reveal of who "Merrywood" actually is.]]
19	* CrapsaccharineWorld: Heaven is depicted as UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood with a dark undercurrent.
20	* ColdBloodedTorture: "Translation."
21	* DivineRanks: All of Heaven's rankings and their system is spelled out by the Librarian during the lyrics of his VillainSong, "Hitting On All Sevens", ranging from lowly Sevens to the highest Ones. The Sevens are the laborers/slaves of Heaven who are put to work under the lecherous Designer. The Sixes are The Translators who serve as brutal enforcers of Heaven's rules and brutalize any dissenters before sending them to Hell when finished. The Fives are the Watchwords, who endlessly survey Heaven for any wrongdoings to report to authorities. The Fours are The Publicist and His Ladies of Virtue who continuously sing God's praises and entertain Him. The Threes are the artists and designers of Heaven who decorate and design the architecture of Heaven to God's wishes. The Twos are the coordinators and educators of Heaven such as The Librarian who dictate and declare the rules of Heaven to new recruits while guarding its secrets. The Ones such as The Agent serve as God's personal agents, Yes-Men, and sometimes [[SexSlave sexual playthings He picks from the cast of new recruits or lower levels to be later discarded.]]
22	* {{Dystopia}}: Heaven, with propaganda everywhere, {{Thoughtcrime}}, and ColdBloodedTorture.
23	** Honestly, Hell isn't much better. Down there, you're either a mentally broken victim or the one torturing those victims...or both.
24	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In a promotional video released before the film, one of the Librarian's minions keeps singing and speaking, despite the myriad signs around the place telling him to be quiet (and the Librarian's repeated warnings). The Librarian [[spoiler: pulls his tongue out]].
25	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even Lucifer himself, for all his flaws, considers God evil. He also makes a point of telling the Ticket Keeper that he "hates martyrs" and would never allow the Ticket Keeper to become one for him.
26	* FateWorseThanDeath: Members of the lowest caste in Heaven are forced to spend all eternity doing sweatshop labor.
27	* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:Each of the Rosy Bayonettes' "terrible plans" features an element of Lucifer's actual plan.]]
28	** The intro, which briefly summarizes the events of the first film, specifically includes a shot of [[spoiler: the Twin shapeshifting into Merrywood, which turns out to be one of the pillars of Lucifer's plan to take down Heaven.]]
29	** During Merrywood's initial interrogation, the Agent questions her about a horseshoe pendant that she picked up on the train ride to Heaven and is noticeably agitated by her refusal to answer. This hints at two separate reveals later in the film: [[spoiler: that the Agent recognized the pendant because he was the one who originally gave it to June, and that the "Merrywood" we've been watching is actually the person who took the pendant from June, the Twin.]]
30	** During an early scene of Merrywood alone in the interrogation room, the tune in the background is from the first movie's song "Beautiful Stranger", [[spoiler: a duet between Merrywood and the Twin.]]
31	* GenreRoulette: From swing to pop standard to sitars and back at breakneck speed.
32	* GlasgowGrin: [[spoiler:Geraldine]] is given one because "her cheeks weren't smiling" when she was "serving" God.
33	* GodAndSatanAreBothJerks: Lucifer is, well, Lucifer, but God is a deeply unsympathetic character, and Heaven is a {{Dystopia}}.
34	* GoodLuckCharm: The horseshoe charm give to June by The Agent for luck in the applicant process. [[spoiler: It doesn't work.]]
35	* {{Hellevator}}: An elevator runs from Heaven to Hell. Naturally, only Heaven gets call buttons.
36	* HeteronormativeCrusader: The Watchword. "Your feelings are not only inappropriate, they're illegal."
37	* HistoricalRapSheet: God sings about he caused the Black Sunday dust storm of 1935, one of the worst dust storms in American history.
38	* HoneyTrap: The Agent is intended to act as one for June's suspected heresy. [[spoiler: During the climax of the film, they end up swapping roles.]]
39	* HopeSpot: A brief one for the Agent when [[spoiler: he reunites with June. He apologizes to her and she gives him a long, passionate kiss. And then she suddenly disappears, and a couple of the Carnies march up and force the Agent into a chair. The look on his face suggests that he knows he's almost certainly completely screwed.]]
40	* IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn: Cora is visibly set off by the mixed signals June sends brushing lint off her shoulder.
41	* IMeantToDoThat: God decides to claim he purposefully allows Lucifer to send condemned souls back.
42	* IronicEcho: The Agent tells June the story of St. Dunstan (not named) [[http://www.stdunstan.net/who-was-st-dunstan.htm coercing the Devil into avoiding homes with horseshoes]]. After [[spoiler:the Agent's arrival in Hell]], The Smith - a carny - nails a horseshoe over his shed and says, "feels like home."
43	* KillTheGod: [[spoiler:The grand plan for Lucifer and his minions. Their major plan includes having The Twin infiltrate Heaven as a redeemed soul, impersonate God's most closest servant, and convince him to come to the Elevator to Hell alone, where Hell's minions will be waiting to slay Him.]]
44	* LastSecondWordSwap: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVRLLb1fK_I&t=11 "An Applicant's lips are for praising, and her fingers... (The Watchword glares at her) are for prayer."]]
45	* LightIsNotGood: Far, far more than the first film, having gone from creepy workshop to full-on depraved {{Dystopia}}.
46	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The Agent when he sees [[spoiler: what became of June in hell. Unfortunately for him, it's too little too late.]]
47	* NeverMyFault: June fits this to a T.
48	* PetTheDog: Lucifer gets a moment of this, surprisingly enough, when he swears that he wouldn't allow the Ticket Keeper to become a martyr for him. This is [[EvenEvilHasStandards in contrast]] with a rather important aspect of Christianity. [[spoiler: And with how God treats The Agent.]]
49	* PrayerIsALastResort: The Agent when [[spoiler: he realizes he's been poisoned by The Painted Doll.]]
50	* PropagandaMachine: The Publicist and His Ladies of Virtue.
51	* PuttingOnTheReich: The angels and applicants wear Nazi-like armbands, and many of them - especially The Agent and The Translators - have very Nazi-esque outfits. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when Painted Doll sings to [[spoiler:The Agent]] in German.
52	* SecretRelationship: The Agent and June.
53	* SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny: God. He's a HeteronormativeCrusader who dislikes any perceived imperfections or hiccups to his strict and uncompromising wishes, but is also a depraved deviant who likes to harm others for no justifiable reason and sexually abuses his female subjects and creations for his own amusement.
54	* SexSlave: God's "special job" for [[spoiler:Geraldine]].
55	* SpeakOfTheDevil: God does not want to hear the name "Lucifer."
56	* ThatPoorCat: The Translators at one point throw their truncheons away in a squeaky-clean interrogation room, and cat noises are heard; when [[spoiler:God makes an unexpected appearance]] in the nightclub scene, a cat noise precedes the sudden hush that falls over the room.
57	* ThisMeansWarpaint: Lucifer changes his clown makeup to blue strikes across his face that are evocative of this.
58	* TrailersAlwaysLie: There's a shot in the trailer that looks like the Watchword is interrogating the Twin which is taken from two different scenes. The characters don't interact at all in the finished film.
59	* TheStinger: [[spoiler:The Twin (disguised as The Agent), serenades God with "Songs of Old".]]
60	* ThenLetMeBeEvil: "After The Fall," sung by Lucifer to [[spoiler:[[PluckyGirl June]] as she begins her process of transforming into [[OriginsEpisode The]] [[BrokenBird Painted]] [[FemmeFatale Doll.]]]]
61	* {{Thoughtcrime}}: The Watchword and The Librarian are both tasked with finding this, the former in applicants, the latter in stories.
62	* TrojanPrisoner: [[spoiler:The Twin]]
63	* TwistEnding: [[spoiler:The "Merrywood" under interrogation is The Twin]].
64	* VillainSong: ''Many''.
65	** "Only by Design," sung by The Designer.
66	** "Good Little Dictation Machines," sung by The Translators.
67	** "The Watchword's Hour," sung by The Watchword.
68	** "Bells of the Black Sunday," sung by God.
69	* WhamShot: When The Agent opens the book God gave him as a present, a look of terror comes over his face. The movie cuts to a shot of the book's title page, which reveals the book is a copy of [[spoiler: [[IronicEcho The Filly and the Lapdog.]]]] Doubles as an OhCrap moment for The Agent.

Context Film / AlleluiaTheDevilsCarnival