Movie Review: Charlie's Farm (2014)

The movie stars Tara Reid, Nathan Jones, Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley and Allira Jaques.

I had never heard of this movie until last night, when my wife discovered it on one of our movie channels. It sounded somewhat interesting and came on shortly after we put the kids to bed so we decided to give it a try. As it turns out, it was pretty much what I expected it to be, a low-budget film that provided some basic slasher-movie entertainment but not much else.

There were a couple things I did find I liked about this film. For one, the basic premise was relatively decent and, more importantly, believable. And, the fact it takes place on a large farm located in very rural Australia gave the movie a little more of a hopeless feeling than I would normally expect, especially since the friends would have to walk more than two hours just to get back to their car.

I also found I liked the bad guy in this film, Charlie Wilson (Jones). He had a bit of a cave-man-like appearance and both him and his weapons of choice were a little on the over dramatic side. But, his menacing presence and no-thrills approach to killing kept his scenes exciting without being ridiculously gory.

I think my biggest complaint about this film was the lack of action until about three quarters of the way through it. Once Charlie began his rampage, it was pretty entertaining. But, before that happened, we had to sit through what seemed like an eternity of driving, walking, sexual innuendo and flashbacks. Oh, and let's not forget the whole "everyone in the bar grows quiet because they mentioned the farm" cliche.

Also, while the film did get better once the action started, it still managed to be pretty predictable. My wife and I were able to guess who would die and in what order and even correctly guessed at how it would end. As a result of this, the movie never reached a point where it was even close to being terrifying.

As I said, I liked the Charlie Wilson character and the location. However, while the actual slasher scenes are brutal enough to be entertaining, the overall execution of the film left a lot to be desired. It had its moments, but it also didn't offer anything that hasn't been done before.

My Grade: C