MANIAC FARMER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MATTHEW WILLIAMS / STARRING: JAKE ROARK, TYLER CALDWELL, JEREMY SNEAD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
It must be said straight off the bat; Maniac Farmer is not a good movie, this may not come as a total shock – yes, the budget is incredibly low and the standard barely makes it above a student film, but what really lets it down, is how little the farmer is involved, if you expect him to use his various farmer-themed weapons, in a slasher or revenge scenario, then you are in for a disappointment. Matthew Williams, who writes, directs, and produces, tries something different, and with all respect to him, however this concept does not work within this strange little movie he has produced.
We start with the centrepiece of the film, the hilarious Blasphemous Rex, driving down the highway at pace, with the film’s title track Maniac Farmer blaring out, naturally! The film really wants to tell you about Mr Rex, and mentions his name about a million times. He is good fun, a young man dressed as a street punk from a school play, he spouts oddly poetic dialogue in a faux English accent, constantly reaffirming how evil he is. We are then introduced to two odd looking policemen, who are investigating a spate of random attacks by a group of delinquents, led by Blasphemous. They like to sit around in their car and tell jokes and stories, eating up the 70 minutes run time. At this point we have seen the aforementioned farmer, a large bearded man in dungarees, doing random jobs around his farm, but little else. Eventually, Rex and a couple of his cronies attack him on his farm, only for the tables to be quickly turned and while the punks are dispatched easily, the farmer chains up Blasphemous in his barn, complete with a dog collar you could easily slip your head out of.
This is where the film really tries to delve deep into the mind of Blasphemous Rex, or Carl, as he immediately reveals to the farmer. We find out that he is schizophrenic and has been abused by his stepfather. It’s at this point that Maniac Farmer tries to establish the idea that when evil meets evil, you shouldn’t interfere, as one of the policemen mentions an old case, in which he intervened when a serial abuser was getting his comeuppance. Fair enough, it is a worthy theme, however in this context it doesn’t work, as we are shown the seeds of Rex’s evil, to the point where we almost sympathise with him, while the farmer is confirmed as a maniac, due to Norman Bates-style ‘Mummy issues’.
Character development is always appreciated and some enjoyment can be taken from Blasphemous and the two police officers, who do have some funny lines, but there is little else to enjoy here, with the film not being scary, gory, or exciting. It feels like the filmmakers should have stuck with a standard slasher flick, complete with deaths by pitchfork, insecticide and combine harvester – look, it writes itself!
