The
Morgan Brothers’ Organic Blood and Bone Fertilizer is a case of truth in
advertising. It is a tough business, but
sometimes the raw materials are free.
However, their cottage industry implodes into grisly mayhem in Colin
& Cameron Cairnes’ Australian horror mash-up 100 Bloody Acres (trailer here), which opens today in New York.
Think
of it as roadkill. In the past, Reg and
his domineering older brother Lindsay have scavenged victims of highway
accidents, “recycling” them back into their customers’ fields. While returning from a solo run, Reg chances
upon a fresh one. He makes a rather
messy job of it though. Against all
better judgment, he also picks up three hitchhiking made-to-order slasher movie
teens on their way to a music festival.
By the time they discover the hastily concealed body they have
practically been sitting on, Reg is back at the Morgan Farm, where Lindsay
takes charge. From this point on, things
will not be pretty for anyone.
Although
a bit slow out of the gate, 100 picks
up speed nicely. In fact, there are a
number of big oh-no-they-didn’t-oh-yes-they-did laughs in the latter half of the
picture. The Cairnes Brothers definitely
deliver enough comedic gore to satisfy genre fans, but they frankly could have
gotten away with far less developed characters, so that is nice bonus as well.
As
Reg, Damon Herriman is quite the game sad sack, but it is Angus Sampson who
really takes the film by the horns as the hulking and increasingly harried
Lindsay. Their three reluctant guests
are basically generic carbon copies of Scream
franchise prototypes, but Chrissie Page has some unforgettable moments as
Nancy, an old friend of the Morgan family.
