[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

CHARLIE'S FARM – Two guys and two gals – some of whom are really quite annoying – set out into the countryside to find 'Charlie's Farm', rumoured to be the site of bad things that happened back in the eighties. They want to go camping, and the place of a former massacre obviously makes for great tent pitching ground in a slasher flick. You couldn't really get more generic if you tried, could you? 'Charlie's Farm' takes a while to get going. It's tolerable at first, with its inevitable excursions into stock territory – for example, the bar full of unwelcoming locals who won't talk about 'what happened back then' but turn out to be necessary plot devices. This kind of thing does provide a slightly better alternative to yet more shots of a car going along a road in the middle of nowhere, but, midway through the run time, it all becomes a bit of a trudge. Thankfully, things are enlivened by some crazier interludes, with bits of gore and flashbacks showing the cruel farm owners and their tormented son, who seems to spend his time on a rocking horse next to soon-to-be murder victims. These latter scenes are actually quite grim, and foreshadow 'Charlie's Farm's final act, which blossoms into gory violence and claustrophobic hopelessness as dicks are cut off and shoved in mouths, throats are slit in leering close up and jaws are wrenched savagely from pleading faces, all courtesy of a giant with a knackered mug and a huge weapon. It's a pay-off worth sticking around for if you like these kind of twisted vibes. 'Charlie's Farm' acquits itself as a worthwhile piece of DTV dreck, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes to pick up cheap bits of plastic from Supermarkets, Poundland and Cex (a kind of trinity which marks out the spiritual homeland of trash like the film under discussion). Had it been keener on the vile stuff before the end and a little sharper round the edges generally, then it could've been an anti-classic – as it stands, it's a well put together, slightly flawed diversion, but one which bodes well for the future of its makers.

Seems we agree on Charlie's Farm, Frankie.