Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch

(Robert Miano)

Zoltan Carnovasch was a highly respected, wealthy, world renowned stage magician in the closing years of the nineteenth century who became demoralised over his inability to perform real magic as opposed to the mere "tricks" he conducted in front of his audiences. To alleviate his concerns, he purchased a spellbook dedicated to the black arts that allowed him to recklessly summon the abomination described elsewhere. Once possessed, he soon slid into the cunning depravity of a serial killer.

Over a period spanning a decade, Carno married five times and secretly killed each of his mostly unsuspecting wives when they either tired of his inconsistent behaviour or he grew weary of their own personalities. It all began with the shovelling soil down the mouth with a sharp bladed trowel murder of Hortencia who gradually preferred gardening to spending time with her deranged husband, and relentlessly continued with the wine bottle in the eye socket slaying of the drunken Victoria. Three more gruesome murders of his wives followed - each more perversely inventive than the last - before Carno's final wife's lover, Gaston, impaled the evil magician on an iron pole with his dying breath. As the demon left his body, Carno made the Sign of the Cross before his soul departed to the spirit world for repentance.

Carno appears as a grey-haired middle aged man of average build and a piercing gaze. He speaks with a vaguely Italian accent. Preferred clothing includes a smoking jacket and traditional magician's garb such as a top hat and cape.

At the time the events of Phantasmagoria take place, over a century after the murders, phantom scenes of Carno's misdeeds remain in the house and surrounds, and the invisible ghosts of his wives retain at least some semblance of awareness to provide subtle assistance and warnings to Adrienne during the adventure.

Filmography for Robert Miano