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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : The Polonia Brothers, Todd Michael Smith
Marion Costly
John Polonia
Mark Polonia
Todd Smith
Supplied By : Camp Motion Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jul. 10, 2007
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| PLOT Twin brothers Alan and Joseph spend the summer visiting their Aunt Lacey at her secluded, run-down property. Little do they know that some family secrets refuse to stay buried …In fact, they are freshly dug up! Lonely auntie has a necrophilic attraction to her deceased husband, whose body she keeps in her house, and Jeremy - her perverted farmhand - is a bloodthirsty monster who dismembers local townsfolk and stores their body parts in the barn for unspeakable uses later on. Soon Alan and Joseph find themselves caught up in a horrifying plot to corrupt, violate, and kill, kill, kill. Unable to get help from the outside, they begin to take charge of the situation. And that's when things really turn ugly. |
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| THE REVIEW The story of 1987's SPLATTER FARM, begins when twin Brothers, Joseph and Alan go to spend the summer with a relative they have not seen it years, their Aunt Lacey. Old Lacey lives on a farm out in the middle of nowhere in a rural area of Pennsylvania, and with nothing to do and nothing else in sight for miles, their "vacation could not be any more boring. When they get there, they find a farm hand, whom Lacey "employs" for the summer named Jeremy, whom seems as weird as they come, and later they find out that he, indeed is....and he has bodies in the barn to prove it. As it turns out, old Lacey, isn't a saint either, as over the years that the brothers had not seen their Aunt, she and her "Husband" share a shameless sex life....except, for one problem, he's been dead for awhile! With these gruesome discoveries, the Brothers are sent into a panic, to successfully escape the rundown farm, with their lives intact, before they become just two more playthings for the two maniacs SPLATTER FARM was shot in 1987 by twin Brothers, John and Mark Polonia, and their High School friend Todd Smith. The Polonia's once experimented with the Super 8 camera medium, but when their father bought a VHS camera for himself, it wasn't long before the Brother's would make their transition to a newer medium, in video. Not only was shooting on video cheaper, but they could also shoot more footage for the same price that they were spending on film for their Super 8. They got to together with Smith and decided that the 3 of them would be the primary actors, while they recruited Todd Smith's Grandmother, Marion Costly to portray Aunt Lacey. As with most all shot on video efforts, the three filmmakers didn't have a lot of money, and they were very eager to make something - thus the story was rushed to be written. And since it was more than likely rushed, it would spawn from already pre-existing films, With that said, from beginning to end, SPLATTER FARM seems to have been heavily inspired by Tobe Hooper's Horror classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, from it's opening text title claming the events portrayed in the picture to be real, to various camera shots panning across a room of skeletal remains, this and other similarities are apparent. With SPLATTER FARM, their are the usual cons that are associated with first tine, or beginning filmmakers. I was quick to notice a lot of unnecessary close up shots of the actors' faces, initially, it's not such a big problem, but eventually there are entirely too many, as their is really no variety in the shots, everything looks the same continuously most of the time. There are also a number of scenes that appear to be nothing but mere time fillers, that consists of meaningless dialogue, that do nothing to move the story along. With all of this mentioned, what happened to be the struggling point for SPLATTER FARM is the acting. When viewing a do-it-yourself film such as that, you MUST take the acting with a grain of salt, in almost all of these types of films the actors are almost always amateurs and have never acted in their lives. So as you could imagine, the acting is what I found to be the biggest problem, it is at most very wooden and robotic and emotionless, with the exception of Todd Smith's Jeremy, the farmhand character - although not the greatest performance, Smith really get's into the character, and is for the most part, interesting as the killing menace. The reason that SPLATTER FARM is so sought after by collectors and deemed a "cult classic", is not because it's a masterpiece or anything, it's because of it's "shock value". The story isn't original by any means, but out of the creative minds of the Polonias and Smith, came bizarre actions, some that even films of today's standards won't even touch or imagine. There are scenes, in which Jeremy, at one point masturbates with a severed arm, incest, and necrophilia(both thanks to Aunt Lacey) and even a scene depicting fisting.....it's as clever as it is disgustingly perverse. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 4/10 The gore is very "Troma-like". but effective, there are decapitations, a torn out heart, among other things. The shot gun blast to ones head, looked surprisingly real, and I am betting due to the editing done by the Polonias for this new version, is the reason for this....whatever the case it was effective! |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2.5/10 The score basically sticks to one tune for most of the film, while other scenes have tunes very similar sounding stuff - but the score serves it's purpose. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM In the end, SPLATTER FARM, is not the best shot on video, or "do-it-yourself" film, I have seen....but it is in fact, the most daring, as it goes to the limit to shock. This version being released by CAMP MOTION PICTURES has been cleaned up and re-edited by the Polonia Brothers to make the film flow smoother in between transitions, and what have you, which is something 1987's technology wouldn't allow. To me, this cut of the film is well worth it to the collectors out there, as this version is the closest to the original vision the filmmakers had in mind. Overall... to me, not the greatest film, as far as story is concerned, as it's nothing new.....but the gore, no matter how cheap it may be, and the bizarre ideas, are well worth seeing. This DVD will be released on August 14, 2007 |
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