Fancy a genuinely funny black comedy that doesn’t hold back on the gore? Well 100 Bloody Acres will be right up your street.
Taking place near enough in the middle of nowhere, this Australian effort from Cameron and Colin Cairnes centres on Reg (Damon Herriman) and Lindsay Morgan’s (Angus Sampson) fertiliser company and a few ‘special ingredients’. With the brothers using local roadkill to give their product an extra oomph, things take a dizzying and dark turn when a group of festival goers are thrown into the figurative mix and it’s soon revealed that human blood and bones brings a whole new dimension to the fertiliser game.
In terms of the tone of the movie, it’s certainly a unique bag, with comparisons easily made to the likes of Shrooms, Soylent Green, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Wolf Creek and even Texas Chain Saw Massacre in various ways. You have the slightly simple and naïve Reg, whilst brother Lindsay snarls his way through the more sinister actions of the ‘business’, and then there’s the group of partiers who end up as the captive victims of the piece. Anna McGahan’s Sophia is the key to this side of things, with her local girl charm striking a chord with Reg, yet she’s also not the cleanest cut of characters as it turns out that she’s been cheating on boyfriend James (Oliver Ackland) with the also-present (and tripped out on acid) Wes (Jamie Kristian). As tensions rise for all parties, the film splatters and chuckles to a conclusion that will appeal to both horror hounds and those who like a good chortle now and again.
The horror/comedy mash-up is something that has been attempted many a time over the decades, particularly more so in recent years after the success of Shaun of the Dead. Fear not though, for 100 Bloody Acres manages to tick all the right boxes and avoid many of the hazards that have befell other such efforts. Whilst wonderfully capturing the bleak remoteness of its locale, the film also strikes the funny bone at all the right moments, finely balancing between the tropes and tones that the Cameron brothers are intertwining. Added to this, the performances are all fantastic for what is required, with particular standout turns for Damon Herriman and Angus Sampson as the Morgan brothers and for the stunning Anna McGahan as Sophia.
Complete with an impressive amount of hugely enjoyable extras, this release of 100 Bloody Acres is one which should adorn the collection of many, proving that making a perfectly-pitched black comedy is indeed doable and is also a whole lot of down and dirty fun.
Special Features: Cast and crew interviews / Nine featurettes / Goof reel
100 BLOODY ACRES / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CAMERON CAIRNES, COLIN CAIRNES / STARRING: DAMON HERRIMAN, ANGUS SAMPSON, ANNA MCGAHAN, OLIVER ACKLAND, JAMIE KRISTIAN / RELEASE DATE: JULY 15TH
