100 Bloody Acres

"100 Bloody Acres" is a very entertaining little horror comedy from Oz. I don't have a whole lot to say about it, except that I enjoyed it.

The set-up is that three people are travelling to some music festival, where they flag down a truck driven by a guy in the fertilizer business, played by Damon Herriman, who recently played Charles Manson. They don't know that the origins of this famous fertilizer sold by Herriman and his brother - unlikely Aussie sex symbol Angus Sampson - is ground up human flesh.

We get some pretty typical scenes with people tied up, trying to escape, but the movie really sings with the scenes with Sampson and Herriman. Sampson's portrayal as the gruff, intimidating brains behind the evil operation is the movie's strong suit.

The movie has a few quite violent moments, but at least it spares us the tedious torture porn rubbish we get in so many horror flicks these days.

As a horror comedy, of course the movie is never scary or suspenseful, but nor is it really laugh out loud funny. However, it does manage a light, humorous tone throughout that keeps a smile on your face.

It's bit of everything but not subtle. Watchable if you have time. Mildly entertaining. Nothing special or memorable. Acting, directing was good, though. 5.5/10.

At the Festival I saw this, many compared it to "Tucker & Dale", but I think that is not an accurate assessment. Both are comedies with horror elements if you will (or the other way around), but the way they are presented is more than different. Not to mention the facets of the characters involved here.

Tucker and Dale is simpler, which is not supposed to be a judgment, I loved the movie. I'm just saying that I thought this is great in its own right too. The comedy has different, sometimes uneven, but therefor darker tone. It's a movie you have to be in the mood for I guess and I totally was. Thought almost every joke worked in this and the changes in pace were nice too (changes in genres too sometimes).

'100 BLOODY ACRES': Four Stars (Out of Five)

Brothers Cameron and Colin Cairnes make their feature film debut writing and directing this Australian horror/comedy film about brothers who run an organic fertiliser business that's dependent on dead bodies (as it's secret ingredient) to make it work so well. One of the brother's comes across three partygoers, on their way to a music festival, and brings them home to introduce to his big brother (and the family business). The movie stars character actors Damon Herriman and Angus Sampson as the brothers and the beautiful Anna McGahan as one of their captured victims. The movie is full of dark humor and twisted gore. If you like dark Australian comedy and horror this is the movie for you.

Lindsay Morgan (Sampson) and his brother Reg (Herriman) have been running a successful organic fertiliser business for some time, that's finally getting it's first radio add, but the only problem is it's dependent on dead bodies, ran through a meat grinder, to make it work so well. The Morgan brothers have been collecting car crash victims to supply this 'secret ingredient' to their fertiliser and as the film opens Reg has just found another body at a crash site. While he's hauling the body home though he comes across a young woman, Sophie (McGahan), and her two male friends (Oliver Ackland and Jamie Kristian). Due to the lack of dead bodies recently he decides to take them home, to his brother Lindsay, to use as the fertiliser ingredient instead (in an attempt to impress his bossy older brother). Things don't go as planned though as Reg develops feelings for Sophie.

If you couldn't tell the movie is part romance as well (twisted romance). It's definitely not for the faint of heart though (or for those who become sickened by the site of blood and gore) but as a dark comedy and horror film it really works. OK, it mainly just works as a dark comedy (as it's neither scary nor very disturbing) but it is gruesome. It also surprisingly has a lot of heart. The Reg character is actually pretty likable and Sophie is one of the coolest and most ideal women a guy could hope for. I love films like this; their great as long as you don't take them seriously.

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Entertaining enough to keep your attention. some laughs,some blood.worth wasting an hour and a half. 7 out of 10