Just in case there still are some backpackers crazy enough to go out hiking in the Aussie Outback after "Wolf Creek" and "Wolf Creek 2", there is now "Charlie's Farm", which must be located somewhere West of Bundanyabba, where the people seemingly all turn psychopathic due to the heat and drought! "Charlie's Farm" is exactly what you expect it to be, namely an extremely brutal and visceral '80s throwback-slasher with an undefeatable killer, plenty of disposable victims and excruciatingly painful death sequences. Top of the bill, genre fanatics are treated with guest appearances of beloved horror icons Bill Moseley ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre II", "House of 1.000 Corpses") and Kane Hodder ("Hatchet", "Friday the 13th"). Horror geeks Jason and Mick mislead their girlfriends and plan a camping trip to the notorious murder site Charlie's Farm. The deranged Wilson family who used to own the farm were maniacal rapists, murders and cannibals. Farmer John and his wife eventually got murdered by an angry mob, but their mentally underdeveloped son Charlie fled into the woods and was never found. More than 30 years later, there naturally are many urban legends and campfire tales about Charlie going around, as well as stories about tourists who went out to farm and never returned. As you can see, "Charlie's Farm" literally hangs together from traditional slasher clichés, stereotypes and homages to genre classics. The film is a lot of fun, although admittedly it takes a little too long before hell fully breaks loose, and the ideal type of entertainment to watch in group with beer and pizza (or at a Film Festival after midnight, like I did). The gore and make-up effects are very professionally handled and the film definitely contains some of the nastiest murder scenes I've seen in a slasher since a long time. Just to give a few examples, there's a girl whose jaw is ripped off and another poor girl has her whole head squished underneath the wheel of a tractor. Ouch! After Glen Jacobs in "See No Evil", Nathan Jones is another wrestler to depict a crazed killer in a gory horror movie. I can easily understand writer/director Chris Sun's choice to cast Nathan Jones, considering his gigantic posture and menacing grimaces. "Charlie's Farm" represents purely rancid and shameless trashy horror entertainment from Down Under; nothing more and certainly nothing less.
Review of Charlie's Farm
