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Released by: Alchemy
Released on: November 3rd, 2015.
Director: Chris Sun
Cast: Tara Reid, Kane Hodder, Nathan Jones, Bill Moseley
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Directed by Chris Sun, 2014's Charlie's Farm starts out at a pool where Jason (Dean Kirkright) and his pal Donkey (Sam Coward) are sipping some brews and watching Jason's girlfriend Natasha (Tara Reid). They're bored and to remedy that they decide it's time for a road trip, to go somewhere inland, not the usual beach trip they typically indulge in. They call up Natasha's friend Mel (Allira Jaques) and the next morning head to the Outback in search of the fabled Charlie's Farm - the site of a mass slaughter years back, rumored to still be haunted by a massive hulking killing machine.
Flashback time! We learn the history of the location - see Charlie was the disfigured 'retarded' offspring of Meredith (Trudy Ross) and John Wilson (Bill Moseley). For reasons never properly explained, the townsfolk, led by a guy named Blue (Robert J. Mussett) shot'em all dead, or so they thought. Meredith and John were killed but before she went down, Meredith hid Charlie away.
The four travelers stop at a bar, meet Blue himself, and promptly ignore his warnings. They get a little lost on the way but a quick call to Natasha's friend, a boxer named Tony Stewart (Kane Hodder), gets them back on track. These days, Charlie is all grown up (and played by Nathan Jones) and just as our lead characters arrive on his home turf, he decides it's time to get back to his old ways and go on a rampage.
There's not much of a story here - the setup is basic, it exists solely to get the four leads to the creepy old farm so that Charlie can start killing people and while the backstory with Mosley and Ross is welcome, it doesn't do a whole lot to add to the character development. The movie throws in another backpacking couple about the mid-way point but they, like pretty much everyone else in the movie, are there really for one reason: gory deaths. The movie does this well. The kill scenes don't really start until the last half hour but once they get moving, they do deliver. Heads are crushed, wangs are severed, throats are slashed and there's a lot of quality gore here in the big finish. Most of it is done with practical effects (there is one stand out CGI moment man does it ever stand out) and most of it is done quite well.
The film also does a good job of exploiting its location. The abandoned farm where most of this takes place is an eerie place, it looks like it's rotting from the inside out and it's the perfect spot for a slasher movie. The filmmakers photograph this well and do a nice job capturing some scenic footage of the surrounding Australian Outback as well. The lack of character development is hard to ignore, however. We don't really care about this people much at all, nor do we know much about them. Jason? Completely generic. Donkey? Well, we learn how he got his nickname and we know he enjoys a good fart, so there's that. Natasha and Mel look nice but again, they're all pretty much interchangeable. Throwing Kane Hodder into the mix is an okay twist but again, he just sort of comes out of nowhere - who is he to these people and why is he involved in all of this? It's never properly explained. So when everyone starts getting slaughtered, you don't really feel all that much for them. This could have been taken care of if there was more effort put into the characters but there clearly wasn't.
What we're left with is entertaining enough if you keep your expectations in check. Charlie himself looks and acts like a cross between Buddy from Slaughterhouse and the crazy woodsman from Don't Go In The Woods… Alone, which is kind of neat.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Charlie's Farm hits DVD from Alchemy in 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen. Shot digitally, there's obviously no print damage. Detail is good for a standard definition transfer and color reproduction is fine, the hot backed outback settings look quite nice. Black levels are decent and shadow detail isn't bad either. There is some pretty obvious aliasing and line shimmering noticeable at times but otherwise the movie looks just fine.
English language audio options are offered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with removable subtitles provided in English and Spanish. The 5.1 track on the disc is pretty strong. There's good channel separation throughout the movie and the dialogue stays clean, clear and nicely balanced. The sound effects and score have good presence and depth and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion.
Not much in the way of extras here, just a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Alchemy/Millennium horror titles, menus and chapter selection. The DVD does come packaged with a slipcover though, if you're into that.
The Final Word:
Charlie's Farm doesn't reinvent the wheel and it definitely comes up lacking in the character development department but it uses the outback setting well and it has some pretty fantastic kill scenes. Slasher fans should get a kick out of this, warts and all, and the DVD release from Alchemy, if light on extras, looks and sounds good.
