Be Less Boring

Link: http://www.myspace.com/freakyfarleymovie

Have you ever kicked around the idea of making a movie after a few beers with friends? You watch some cheesy flick and think, "Hey, we can do that better than they did!" Of course, when you start thinking about it, you begin to realize a few things. Who has time to write a script? Have you ever tried to write dialog--it ain't easy. Who has money to rent cameras, buy film, hire actors and a crew? With editing, packaging, promoting, it quickly becomes a major undertaking. So, you just pop open another beer, switch to the Pat's game and forget those ideas.

Producer Matt Farley and Director Charles Roxburgh apparently had the time and money to make the movie and not nearly enough beer to let the idea pass them by. The result is Freaky Farley, one of those movies destined to be a cult classic.

Follow up:

The movie is billed as a horror movie in the tradition of late 1970s and 1980s horror films like Slumber Party Massacre 3. I've never seen that particular cinematic outing or the other movies FF compares itself to, but I would compare it to another classic low-budget film, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

The synopsis is this: Farley Wilder (Matt Farley) recounts his life story in great detail to a psychiatrist in the mental institution which he currently resides. He begins with his mother's mysterious and untimely death, after which his father becomes overly strict and controlling, doling out senseless punishments while he spews inane fatherly advice upon his unfortunate son. Farley becomes a misfit, sneaking around town peeping through windows, and experiencing lonely misadventures while avoiding responsibilities and subverting his father's plans to get Farley a good job. One day a pretty, confident, adventurous woman named Scarlett meets up with Farley and the two set out to find out what really happened to Farley's mother in the supposedly haunted Morgansville woods. What happens there leads Farley to snap, going on a killing spree before being knocked unconscious by the town ninja.

I wouldn't necessarily call this a horror film. Aside from the all too brief killing spree, there's not much horror to it. However, it does have scantily clad women, a ninja, a hobo, a slutty witch, ugly, hairy monsters, and a crazed killer whose weapon of choice is a drywall saw. Wow! All it's missing is a car chase scene or it could rank right up there with the Blues Brothers movie a movie with a good car chase scene.

What this movie could really use is a little less of the father-son interaction that drags on for the first two thirds of the movie. Yeah, we got it, dad's a prick and doesn't let Farley have any fun. How about a few more mysterious bodies showing up around town instead of another scene of Farley digging a hole in the back yard? They could have had Farley overhear some incriminating conversations while he was peeping through windows or maybe he could get caught and get his ass kicked a few times. Anything to add a little action to the first hour of the movie would have helped.

What the movie has going for it, however, is the totally enthralling Scarlett, played by Sharon Scalzo. She's bold, beautiful, smart, funny, curious, and down to Earth. She's the kind of girl that every guy has a crush on, and Farley is no exception. After meeting her, Farley begins to develop a little spine, disobeys his father, and strikes out to find the cabin his family used to stay at to find out what really happened to his mother all those years ago. Without Sharon Scalzo, this movie would be a serious dud. Steff Deschenes, another beautiful actress, is very effective as the slutty town witch, but has way too little on screen time.

This is a truly low budget film. I found myself reaching for the remote to adjust the volume from scene to scene. The actors are all amateurs and some of them could have used a few more takes to get their lines down right. But, the camera angles were good, the shots were well framed, the editing was clean , and the backgrounds were well-chosen. The film has a charming innocence that makes it watchable. They could have put in some nudity or more gore, but that would have detracted from the campy fun of the movie.

For some reason, however, I kept thinking about Pat Benatar during the movie, but I couldn't figure out why until now. Farley's shirts are straight out of the 80s and Benatar made them famous.

Freaky Farley is not a fantastic movie. It's not a horrible movie, either. I'd give it 3.2 out of 10 stars. A little bit more of a budget and a little more work on the script and they could have had a decent B movie. But these guys aren't movie producers. They're not part of the Hollywood establishment. The whole movie was filmed in New England, mostly around Manchester, NH. They have day jobs and hobbies. In fact, Matt Farley is half of the renowned band, Moes Haven, which I've blogged about numerous times. Farley's musical partner, Tom Scalzo, also appears in the movie as one of the Trogs--the scary monsters in the woods--and as a lyric poet. The theme song is even a Moes Haven composition. You don't have to look far to find the DVD, it's right here, along with the trailer.

The bottom line is that Freaky Farley may be the best horror movie filmed in New Hampshire in the last two years!