Some
places are just evil. The old Wilson farm is like that. Yet, due to the notoriety
of the Wilson family’s serial killing, torture, and cannibalism, hipster backpackers
constantly come to gawk at the scene of their crimes. They are never
disappointed by the spot—unfortunately. More meat for the grinder will soon
arrive in Chris Sun’s Charlie’s Farm (trailer here), a nasty piece of
gristle that releases today on DVD.
Jason
and his American expat girlfriend Natasha are bored, so they decide to light
off on a road trip with their pals, Facebook hottie Melanie and “Donkey” (don’t
ask). Rather than the beach, they settle on an outback excursion, but Jason and
Donkey secretly agree camping out at the Wilson farm will be a laugh riot. When
they finally come clean, Natasha thinks they are nuts, but Melanie appreciates
the ill-conceived irony.
However,
the locals do their best to dissuade the stupid idiots from their plan,
especially Old Blue, the mean codger who was there when the villagers finally
took the pitchforks to the Wilsons. They got the sicko Wilson parents, but the
mentally challenged son escaped. Everyone assumed he would quickly perish in
the outback, but instead he grew up to be gargantuan. Of course, he is still
out there, carving up hikers and tourists for his own sadistic sport.
Much
like the savage Wolf Creek franchise,
Farm is unabashedly brutal and gory.
At times, it makes you feel unclean for watching. Yet, it is nearly redeemed
single handedly by Kane Hodder, who steals the film lock, stock, and barrel as Tony
Stewart, a former boxer who sets out to rescue his younger, dumber pals. It is
ironic Hodder is best known for wearing the Jason Voorhees hockey mask in the Friday the 13th films,
because he is a genuinely charismatic actor (for further proof, check out the
infinitely superior Digging Up the Marrow).
When he faces off against Charlie Wilson (not the one played by Tom Hanks), the
movie approaches awesome territory.
As
Natasha, Tara Reid is kind of not bad, but she still looks weird. Allira
Jacques also shows some attitude and energy as Melanie, but the shtick of Sam
Coward’s Donkey is just painful. Serious horror fans will also appreciate Bill
Moseley totally creeping out the joint as old man Miller in the flashback
scenes, but the cruelty they depict is just no fun to watch.
