Currently playing on VOD platforms
Directors: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 7.5/10
Creating a horror-comedy is something that many filmmakers attempt, however most don’t succeed. For every Tucker and Dale or Shaun of the Dead, there’s a Scary Movie ready to delegitimize the genre. With that in mind, it’s such a surprise to see just how funny and refreshing Cameron and Colin Cairnes’ 100 Bloody Acres actually is. It’s gory, brash, and pulls no punches, which happens to be all you could want in a crazy Aussie horror flick.
The film revolves around two brothers, played by Damon Herriman and Angus Sampson, who run a fertilizer business. After discovering that by adding potassium from human beings makes the fertilizer super potent, one of the brothers kidnaps three youngsters whose car breaks down along the road. Of course, things go awry and chaos ensues.
The overall tone of 100 Bloody Acres feels a lot like another fantastic horror-comedy, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Though the two leads are certainly more nefarious than Tucker and Dale, they share the same kind of banter back and forth, which proves to be funny and very entertaining. The dialogue is this film’s main strength, with gobs of funny throw away lines and conversations
While Damon Herriman as Reg is the standout, everyone in the cast does a serviceable job. Many young actors in horror movies tend to over act, however the three victims in this film (Anna McGahan, Oliver Ackland, and Jamie Kristian) were funny and convincing. Kristian’s role was the more interesting of the three however, since he was high on LSD the entire film.
Of course, with a title like 100 Bloody Acres one can also expect some violence, and gore hounds will be happy to know that this movie doesn’t hold back on the blood and guts. There are plenty of gruesome moments featuring lots of dismemberment and gallons of blood. Some of the horror elements do provide some laughs, but again, it’s really the characters that make this film shine.
While it does feature some conventional horror tropes, the plot feels original for the most part. There are some genuinely surprising moments throughout the 91-minute runtime, and there are some interesting twists as well.
100 Bloody Acres manages to stand out from the lowbrow horror comedies by giving us a unique story with some great situational humor and laugh out loud dialogue. It plays out like a great companion piece to Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, but it also caters to fans of Australian horror.
