Freaky Farley
Freaky Farley claims to be a tribute to the low budget horror films of the 1970s and 80s but it’s much, much more than this.
The film opens with Farley Wilder (Matt Farley) behaving in the manner that you would expect of someone labouring under the nickname of Freaky Farley. And if you assume that I mean he’s peering through windows at semi-naked women, you’d be completely right. Farley has, of course, progressed beyond being a mere peeper, as is apparent from the fact that much of the film is told in flashback by a now incarcerated Farley to his psychiatrist (Ruth Tyler).
As Farley tells his story it becomes clear that he checks all the boxes we have come to expect from a rampaging psychopath. His mother died when he was young and his father – a local celebrity – is both domineering and distant. Jobless, hopeless and still living with his father, Farley is a loser going nowhere.
And then he meets Scarlett (Sharon Scalzo) who is both attractive and confident and starts to bring Farley out of his shell. Inevitably, Farley’s growing confidence causes him to start to clash with his father, and to ask questions his father doesn’t want to answer. We know that things will end badly, but it’s a good fifty minutes into the film before they start to do so.
Charles Roxburgh and Matt Farley are a lot less interested in throwing gore at the screen than they are in spending time with the – invariably cheesy – characters that populate so many of the direct to video gems of 30 years ago. So we have a cast of characters ranging from the slightly odd to the outright weird, all spiting deliberately cheesy dialogue at each other. And a ninja, because all films are invariably improved by the inclusion of a ninja.
And then, in the last third of its running time, the film takes a turn for the brilliantly bizarre.
Freaky Farley is less a homage to late 70s and early 80s horror films than it is a satire of these films. And, as a satire, it works brilliantly. The comedy is quirky without being either contrived or self-indulgent. We have a set of characters here that could easily have been lifted from any number of films thrown together and the humour is allowed to emerge from their interactions with each other.
The look of the film does such a good job of transporting you back to the films preferred period that it is easy to forget that it was only released last year. It’s light on gore and the nudity is implied rather than shown, all of which works very well in the context of what the filmmakers are trying to achieve.
Roxburgh and Farley clearly know and love their preferred genre and have managed to very effectively reflect everything that was fun about the original direct to video boom in a way that allows us all to enjoy it all over again.
Saturday 09 Feb 2008 | Paul Pritchard | Comedy, Horror
