Charlie’s Farm (UK DVD)
Starring Nathan Jones, Tara Reid, Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley, Allira Jaques, Dean Kirkright
Directed by Chris Sun
Distributed by Monster Pictures UK
A quartet of friends in Australia, headed up by American Natasha (Tara Reid), decide to take some time away from the daily drudgery of (apparently) hanging out in a private pool and drinking beer, and set off into the Outback for a camping trip in Chris Sun’s slasher throwback Charlie’s Farm.
Unbeknownst to the two girls, Natasha and Melanie (Jaques), the guys have decided to follow up on party-boy Mick’s (Sam Coward) suggestion that they go spend a couple of nights at the infamous titular location. Through some rather brutal flashbacks, the audience is given the back story of Charlie’s Farm – a place once inhabited by a psychopathic, cannibalistic couple, led by fan favourite Bill Moseley, and their heavily deformed and mentally impaired young son, Charlie.
Having had enough of the murderous clan killing and consuming townsfolk, workers and tourists, the locals take it upon themselves to deliver deadly mob justice – but not before young Charlie is hidden away from their clutches by his mother.
Now, many years later of course, the grown-up Charlie is thought to prowl the area, which is readily avoided and earnestly warned about by the locals. As per slasher film convention, our core group of friends just won’t listen – and so off they go in search of the good time which we all know by now they shall be cruelly denied.
On paper, Charlie’s Farm is as thin as they come. Characterisation is merely puddle deep – the only particular standout being Coward’s turn as the pudgy, smart-mouthed Mick (nicknamed “Donkey”). Extra fodder for the beast is shoehorned in, in the form of two other young hikers who appear at the farm for pretty much no reason except they were in the general area.
Whilst the dialogue is only just functional at best, the main cast do manage to bring an endearing sense of camaraderie to the present day proceedings, and Bill Moseley is his usual riveting self when it comes to the flashbacks. Hell, even Tara Reid isn’t as grating as one would normally come to expect. This helps carry Charlie’s Farm through an entire first hour of basic tedium and setup – but it can only do so much when there’s so little to truly work with.
Then, just when the fidgeting begins – when you start to wonder whether Sun’s film is actually going to go anywhere…
Charlie shows up.
Played by seven-foot tall strongman Nathan Jones (last seen as Rictus Erectus in Mad Max: Fury Road), Charlie is a total wrecking ball of unbridled rage – and once he hits the screen, the remainder of Charlie’s Farm is a pro-grade display of total carnage that will make any ’80s splatter/slasher fan squeal with delight.
Jones brings Charlie to life with aplomb – a hulking, stomping menace with a terrific glint in his flaming yellow eyes and an obvious delight in the act of slaughter. His visual design itself is equally fantastic – heavily deformed, scarred, jagged-toothed and clad in furs. It’s obvious that writer/director Sun has set out to bring a new kind of iconic slasher to the screen, and in some aspects he has indeed succeeded. In fact, through another thoroughly underdeveloped subplot, we actually get to see genre champ Kane Hodder symbolically defend his title against Jones’ brute – a welcome, if rather transparent, nod to the genre.
The kill scenes are amped up by excellent special effects (mostly practical), solid editing and a wicked sense of humour. Everything seems to come together once the action truly begins in Charlie’s Farm, but there’s no denying that the surrounding framework is so rickety it might as well have been constructed with lollypop sticks. For many, it’ll be too little, too late – one hour of meaningless dribble as the entry fee to 25 minutes of sheer delight.
And that’s a shame because the film is well shot, nicely directed and, as mentioned, smartly edited. There’s more than enough brutality and bloodshed to keep any gorehound happy, and those final 25 minutes truly are a fun, wild ride. If only any of it actually felt of any consequence.
While Charlie’s Farm definitely has more than its fair share of failings – most glaringly in the script department – it gets a recommendation for those just looking for a bloody good time, and slasher fans who want to get a glimpse at a villain who might just have the potential to be the next big thing in blade-wielding should he be given better grounds to play in next time.
Monster Pictures UK bring Charlie’s Farm to DVD with only the trailer as a genuine extra, which feels like another missed opportunity given the obvious demand that should arise for a deeper look at the film’s main attraction: Charlie himself.
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