Horror Movie Review: Charlie’s Farm (2014)

Charlie’s Farm opens with a couple hiding from someone; they do a terrible job of it as they are shortly dispatched in gory fashion. It’s an introduction that has been done a million times over in horror already & hardly builds anticipation for what follows.

Some time later we meet Jason & Mick who want to go check out the supposedly haunted Charlie’s Farm. They meet up with Jason’s girlfriend, Natasha who brings along her friend Melanie & the group set off.

Along the way they stop to get directions & step into another horror cliché as they are warned about going to the farm. The group leave anyway (obviously) & continue on while Mick recants the tale of the farm to the girls.

Way back when, The Wilson family lived at the farm & would kidnap backpackers before torturing & eating them. John Wilson (played by the always wonderful Bill Moseley) gets into a confrontation with some of the local townspeople who believe the family responsible for the missing backpackers. He ends up being shot during the argument while his psychotic wife, Meredith is interrogated & beaten to death. All of this takes place in front of their mentally challenged son, Charlie, who disappears…presumed dead.

The group finally find the farm (after additional help from Tony who is played by horror legend, Kane Hodder) & set about exploring it. They don’t find much so end up spending the night where they are visited while they sleep. Charlie is back & he doesn’t appreciate the intrusion.

What follows is a sub-standard gory affair that doesn’t have a single original bone in its body. Charlie is no different from the Jason Voorhees & Michael Myers of the horror world, super-imposing, near indestructible & filled with an unquenchable violent rage. If it wasn’t for the entertaining kills there really wouldn’t be anything to recommend here.

The acting is standard from some while others look bored, clearly picking up some easy money for being a ‘name’ (Tara Reid, remember her?). The standout acting comes from Bill Moseley & Trudi Ross who play Mr & Mrs Wilson. The 10 minutes the pair are on screen puts the other 78 to shame! In the brief time they appear their characters are more interesting then anyone else & way more plausible as villains then Charlie ever is.

Thankfully Charlie’s Farm is short, over before it starts to get on your nerves. Never going to live long in the memory, it’s shining moments are easily surpassed in far similar & far better horrors.