I was quite surprised when I put on Frenchman's Farm to watch to discovered the bloody thing was Australian. I was expecting a run of the mill US slasher flick but it was neither of those. Maybe it is churlish or mean spirited of me to react in such as way to the produce of my own country but on the whole Australian films are really bad, Australian horror films included. I think it has a lot to do with the movies trying self consciously to be distinctly Australian instead of just telling a story or by trying to ape US releases but without the technical expertise or budgets- even Australian shlock isn't up to scratch. As it turns out the film wasn't actually all that bad- okay it wasn't very good either but it wasn't painfully bad as I feared it would be the second I heard strong ocker accents.
As I said the film isn't really a slasher. I suppose its a horror/mystery/ghost story if you had genreise it. The movie opens with our heroine Jackie (Tracy Tainsh) leaving her parents place in rural Queensland (Whilst the countryside is being ravaged by bushfire no less, she is apparently in a hurry). Whilst she is driving across the countryside she is unknowingly transported back in time to the 1940's. The first sign of this is the radio starts playing 40's music, which came as something of a relief given the bad '80's pop she was listening to. Anyway, she soon finds herself witness to the murder of a man in an Australian army uniform whilst he is digging in a field. She is chased by the assailant, a crazy curly-headed dude with an axe but escapes and is transported back to the present (Well the '80's- which we all wish was the present- don't we?). She eventually accepts she had been back in time when she tracks down a newspaper article describing the murder she witnessed, which is fair enough given the biggest clues she had been given were the archaic music and cars, references to World War II as a recent event and old newspapers. The man identified in the story as the murderer is not the man she saw doing the killing. The rest of the movie involves Tracy and her mulleted boyfriend Barry (David Reyne), who sings in a bad '80's band, investigating.
Unfortunately that is pretty much it. Most of this plodding movie follows the two of them wandering around the farm (named because it original owner was French, why couldn't he be from Abyssinia) and the nearby town. This consists of endlessly discussing the history of the place with the locals, digging holes etc. The mystery isn't that interesting and quite predictable- basically a ghostly Frenchman protecting his loot and not a lot happens till the very end. There isn't even that much in the way of suspense or tension other than one false scare scene whilst our leads are skinny-dipping (Sadly we get a better look at Barry than the more fetching Tracy). There is little flair in the directing and the leads are kind of dull. Tracy Tainsh looks good in a pair of shorts which she is kind enough to walk around in for most of the running time and is a decent actress but her character is unexciting and Barry (How Ocker can you get name-wise short of calling him Bruce) is a not that interesting a fellow either a bit of a dullard at times. The kind of guy who sees no problem ethically or legally, despite being a law student, with breaking into a crypt and opening up someone's coffin. Fortunately they get through his skepticism scenes fairly quickly, which makes the character rather trusting but too many scenes of protagonists trying to prove to a partner that such and such supernatural event happened can really slow a movie down and this movie really doesn't need any slowing down.
There is a subplot involving a couple of policemen looking into the case which mostly involved spooky things happening to the police computer. To the modern viewer '80s computers are already weird and spooky, not to mention clunky and charming. Whenever they try and consult the police database about the murders it prints out random clues and the files are erased. Needless to say this is kind of goofy- that the forces at work which seem otherwise restricted to one small geographic locations can reach out like this. I'm guessing this plot element was considered innovative at the time, when computers were still a fairly new thing. To be pedantic, it also seems weird that there is no paper copy of any of the police records. These characters don't' really do much either and do not really become involved in the main plot until the very end.
As mentioned not much happens until the end and even then it's not all that much. There aren't any big revelations or surprises. A human villain is revealed along with the ghostly one but his role in events is unclear and underwhelming in terms of motivation and action. It's hardly a surprise either, even it weren't obvious from the get go he was up to something because of his role in the movie blatant clues such as other characters frequently commenting on him being suspicious give it away. Jackie and Barry don't end up doing much and nor do the police.
The movie does have a few things going for it. The title character is a fairly effective villain- he certainly looks crazy and rather creepy. A ghostly Frenchman- brrr. I also got a nostalgic chuckle out of 80's Australianisms -the hairstyles, music, acting style etc. Frenchman's Farm is an okay way to spend a 100 minutes but I wouldn't seek it by any means and it's biggest plus in my book was simply not being grating and annoying as I had initially feared it might be.
As I said the film isn't really a slasher. I suppose its a horror/mystery/ghost story if you had genreise it. The movie opens with our heroine Jackie (Tracy Tainsh) leaving her parents place in rural Queensland (Whilst the countryside is being ravaged by bushfire no less, she is apparently in a hurry). Whilst she is driving across the countryside she is unknowingly transported back in time to the 1940's. The first sign of this is the radio starts playing 40's music, which came as something of a relief given the bad '80's pop she was listening to. Anyway, she soon finds herself witness to the murder of a man in an Australian army uniform whilst he is digging in a field. She is chased by the assailant, a crazy curly-headed dude with an axe but escapes and is transported back to the present (Well the '80's- which we all wish was the present- don't we?). She eventually accepts she had been back in time when she tracks down a newspaper article describing the murder she witnessed, which is fair enough given the biggest clues she had been given were the archaic music and cars, references to World War II as a recent event and old newspapers. The man identified in the story as the murderer is not the man she saw doing the killing. The rest of the movie involves Tracy and her mulleted boyfriend Barry (David Reyne), who sings in a bad '80's band, investigating.
Unfortunately that is pretty much it. Most of this plodding movie follows the two of them wandering around the farm (named because it original owner was French, why couldn't he be from Abyssinia) and the nearby town. This consists of endlessly discussing the history of the place with the locals, digging holes etc. The mystery isn't that interesting and quite predictable- basically a ghostly Frenchman protecting his loot and not a lot happens till the very end. There isn't even that much in the way of suspense or tension other than one false scare scene whilst our leads are skinny-dipping (Sadly we get a better look at Barry than the more fetching Tracy). There is little flair in the directing and the leads are kind of dull. Tracy Tainsh looks good in a pair of shorts which she is kind enough to walk around in for most of the running time and is a decent actress but her character is unexciting and Barry (How Ocker can you get name-wise short of calling him Bruce) is a not that interesting a fellow either a bit of a dullard at times. The kind of guy who sees no problem ethically or legally, despite being a law student, with breaking into a crypt and opening up someone's coffin. Fortunately they get through his skepticism scenes fairly quickly, which makes the character rather trusting but too many scenes of protagonists trying to prove to a partner that such and such supernatural event happened can really slow a movie down and this movie really doesn't need any slowing down.
There is a subplot involving a couple of policemen looking into the case which mostly involved spooky things happening to the police computer. To the modern viewer '80s computers are already weird and spooky, not to mention clunky and charming. Whenever they try and consult the police database about the murders it prints out random clues and the files are erased. Needless to say this is kind of goofy- that the forces at work which seem otherwise restricted to one small geographic locations can reach out like this. I'm guessing this plot element was considered innovative at the time, when computers were still a fairly new thing. To be pedantic, it also seems weird that there is no paper copy of any of the police records. These characters don't' really do much either and do not really become involved in the main plot until the very end.
As mentioned not much happens until the end and even then it's not all that much. There aren't any big revelations or surprises. A human villain is revealed along with the ghostly one but his role in events is unclear and underwhelming in terms of motivation and action. It's hardly a surprise either, even it weren't obvious from the get go he was up to something because of his role in the movie blatant clues such as other characters frequently commenting on him being suspicious give it away. Jackie and Barry don't end up doing much and nor do the police.
The movie does have a few things going for it. The title character is a fairly effective villain- he certainly looks crazy and rather creepy. A ghostly Frenchman- brrr. I also got a nostalgic chuckle out of 80's Australianisms -the hairstyles, music, acting style etc. Frenchman's Farm is an okay way to spend a 100 minutes but I wouldn't seek it by any means and it's biggest plus in my book was simply not being grating and annoying as I had initially feared it might be.
