Charlie's Farm

I first watched Charlie's Farm not long after it came out on DVD and really enjoyed it. Roll on six years or so and I have just given it a second viewing, sadly this time it didn't have quite the same effect. Let's be honest any movie that has B-movie queen Tara Reid get top billing is never going to be great. Acting isn't her best asset and without sounding ageist I felt that she looked too old for her part as one of the "youths" looking for the farm of the title (she would have been late 30's at the time). This is an Australian slasher movie set in the bush and has some great scenery. Among the cast are two American titans of horror, Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder. Moseley plays Charlie's drunken, murderous father and puts in the best performance of the film, constantly referring to his son as "retard". Hodder, best know for playing Jason Vorhees, is a bit more out of place, he plays a boxing coach who adds very little to the story. Charlie himself is played by man mountain Nathan Jones. I do like Australian movies and the Aussie wit is very much here but overall the acting isn't great and, with a few exceptions, the first half of the film does plod. When the gore and brutal killings do come later on it was worth the wait. Some really gory kills and thankfully no horrible CGI. As a splatter movie it delivers but is low on nudity, just a single female breast and the rear view of a butt naked dude. To date there has been no sequel so for now at least it is a fairly reasonable stand alone title in the modern stalk and slash genre.

The reasons for why I opted to sit down and watch "Charlie's Farm" was solely because of two things; of which the first was that it is a horror movie, and the second being that Kane Hodder is in the movie. It turns out that my horror heart skipped a beat when I saw that Bill Moseley also was in this movie - a fact which had eluded me.

"Charlie's Farm" started out quite nicely with some brutality and slayings, so the scene and mood of the movie was established right away. So it was off to an impressive start.

The atmosphere of the movie and the build up of the storyline is very reminiscent of the horror movies from the 1990s, so there is a sense of familiarity and nostalgia to be experienced here. Personally, I think that worked out well in favor of the movie.

The cast was for the most part quite interesting in this movie. I was initially thrilled to have Kane Hodder and Bill Moseley together in a horror movie, but was somewhat disheartened when I came to realize that they didn't actually have any on-screen time together. Also, I feel somewhat bamboozled because Kane Hodder didn't really have that big of a role in this movie. Now, I don't claim to be much of a fan of Tara Reid, and for some reason she looks exactly the same in every movie she is in, exactly the same - so she could potentially just be the same character in all of her movies.

The special effects, props and make-up department had done some pretty good work in bringing the movie to life on the screen, and the gore and mayhem looked rather realistic, which really added to the enjoyment of the movie. Well, at least most of the time anyway, there were moments when it was obviously a prosthetic being used, and was painstakingly visibly so.

I have to admit to having a good laugh when Kane Hodder was standing in the dark and asking "is that you Jason?"

If you enjoy the old school slasher horror genre then you will most definitely get a kick out of "Charlie's Farm". However, the movie does follow that traditional blueprint of how the horror movies were made back then, so on that note don't expect any great surprises in terms of innovation or creativity.

The low rating of this movie motivated me to post my first ever review ,,, It is truly one of the best horror movies I've seen! It takes quite a lot to creep me out & this one actually scared me ... Special effects were pretty good...especially the riverbank scene ...I'm a long time ER Nurse & I'm pretty picky when it comes to gore scenes ...This particular segment was pretty realistic anatomically ( ask me about the man & the Filter Queen Vacuum accident / the kid & the dog & the peanut butter ) ...There's also a "jaw " incident that looked quite authentic. I love these Australian movies because there is an element of psychotic behaviour that lends plausibility to the plot. Unlike Vampires & Demons, this could actually happen! If you liked High Tension & Wolf Creek, you'll love this one!

Few of the main reasons I sat through this movie was hearing good things about it from friends and also being a huge horror buff, especially the slashers plus Kane Hodder, one of my favorite horror movie actors comes out. Who doesn't love him as Jason Voorhees and Victor Crowley? This movie while having a predictable plot and mediocre acting at best, didn't suck as much as I expected it to. Some scenes surprisingly shocked me despite the editing being very choppy and slow, the kills are very gorish and fantastic which is a must for any slasher. The first hour of the story dragged on for wayyy too long and took awhile to pickup the kills and action but Nathan Jones gives a fine performance as Charlie and Tara Reid and the rest of the actors are fine. I appreciate the writers giving a backstory to Charlie but when a slasher movie drags on for a whole hour before getting to the kills it becomes pretty generic.

A solid 5/10, nothing special but definitely worth watching a couple of times especially if you're a horror fan.

Sometimes a horror movie doesn't have to overreach with its premise, Charlie's Farm toils away with mindset. It uses the "cabin in the woods" concept down to the creepy antagonist and assembly of clueless annoying characters. The backstory and gore are made pretty well, but with stuttering pace and awkward dialogues, this will resonate better with horror or gore fans.

One day two friends just decide to visit a harrowing site of murder, and they take mandatory attractive girls there. Soon we follow character with nickname such as Donkey in a ridiculous road trip as a build up for the story. To its credit, Charlie's past is told thoroughly by on-screen characters, which is a nice foundation for the antagonist.

Script consists of blatantly uninspiring jokes and quips. Aside from Natasha (Tara Reid), who seems to be the only one with common sense, there's barely any identifiable character. Fart jokes or stupid decisions in crude display, it looks like the movie wants audience to root for the villain.

Apparently, this particular site is infamous in attracting backpackers. When the murder spree begins there are ample amount of victims and the ways they are dispatched are admittedly creative. There's plenty of gore between the slow trudging plot. Practical effect and make-up definitely produce very nasty sequences. The shock value surprisingly goes a long way.

Unfortunately, some of the scenes in dark lighting are poorly captured, so it may hamper the thrill. That's basically everything Charlie's Farm has to offer, only a couple decent bits from the story and lots of blood for the rest. Horror fans might find some delight, but others would probably be reluctant to visit Charlie's Farm.