I first watched Charlie's Farm not long after it came out on DVD and really enjoyed it. Roll on six years or so and I have just given it a second viewing, sadly this time it didn't have quite the same effect. Let's be honest any movie that has B-movie queen Tara Reid get top billing is never going to be great. Acting isn't her best asset and without sounding ageist I felt that she looked too old for her part as one of the "youths" looking for the farm of the title (she would have been late 30's at the time). This is an Australian slasher movie set in the bush and has some great scenery. Among the cast are two American titans of horror, Bill Moseley and Kane Hodder. Moseley plays Charlie's drunken, murderous father and puts in the best performance of the film, constantly referring to his son as "retard". Hodder, best know for playing Jason Vorhees, is a bit more out of place, he plays a boxing coach who adds very little to the story. Charlie himself is played by man mountain Nathan Jones. I do like Australian movies and the Aussie wit is very much here but overall the acting isn't great and, with a few exceptions, the first half of the film does plod. When the gore and brutal killings do come later on it was worth the wait. Some really gory kills and thankfully no horrible CGI. As a splatter movie it delivers but is low on nudity, just a single female breast and the rear view of a butt naked dude. To date there has been no sequel so for now at least it is a fairly reasonable stand alone title in the modern stalk and slash genre.
