DVD Review: Australian Horror CHARLIE’S FARM Gives You What You Want From A Slasher Movie

Australian horror Charlie’s Farm gives you exactly what you want from a slasher movie. Chris Sun’s film ticks all the boxes in delivering slasher thrills as a group of people (Dean Kirkright, Sam Coward, Tara Reid and Allira Jaques) seek out the location at the centre of a mythical tale of terror. Bad things happen once they get there though, as the crazed Charlie doesn’t take too well to visitors.

There’s a lot for horror fans to enjoy in Chris Sun’s film. Charlie (Nathan Jones) is part man, part monster, a beast reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface and Friday The 13th’s Jason Voorhees. He’s a well realised villain due to a well-drawn (but not over-worked) backstory and it’s a shame that he doesn’t get to have a bit more to do throughout the film. Maybe this will get a sequel and expand on the character. Speaking of Jason Voorhees, Kane Hodder himself makes an appearance and he goes toe-to-toe with Charlie in a last act smack-down. Fellow horror veteran Bill Mosely also makes an appearance, showing that Sun has taken care to stack his film with enough horror icons to make this worthwhile for serious genre fans.

Charlie’s Farm is packed with gold, old-fashioned blood, guts and gore and you get plenty of bang for your buck in the film’s lean 88 minute running time. It’s nasty, but the violence is delivered in a cartoonish way. It might spend a little too much time on the set up, but once this gets going it delivers on its house of horror promise.

Gory but not really scary, Charlie’s Farm could have been made during the slasher boom of the 1980s. Admittedly, there’s very little new here, but that’s not the point. Sometimes you just want an old fashioned horror that gives you exactly everything you need and want from this type of film.