Farm House (2008)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

After her jerk of a husband racks up a $25,000 debt with a couple of underground bookmakers, a pregnant woman has a visit in her kitchen from a stranger who holds a knife to her throat. She loses the baby shortly after it is born, and the two of them decide to relocate to another part of the country away from his creditors. Not content with this, and ignoring her advice, he continues to drive while clearly tired, and falls asleep at the wheel, crashing their car miles from anywhere, but of course there is an isolated house nearby, a farm house in this case, which is inhabited by a hospitable although somewhat strange individual, his wife and their deaf farm hand.They're being incommunicado, they are invited to stay the night. Clearly their host is a bit creepy, but it is not the sort of thing you can put your finger on, and what other option do they have? It is clear too from the beginning that this house is more "Hotel California" than "Little House On The Prairie", but what comes next?Their, or rather his, earlier misadventures are told in flashbacks, wherein we learn that the debt is actually much more than $25,000. There is it is true a spectacular twist at the end, one most people will not have seen coming, although there was a hint with the photographs on the wall, and the farmer's wife insisting on taking their photographs too. The real question is though, is it worth sitting through the preceding gratuitous sadism that most viewers will have foreseen, if not the actual quantum?

First i was reluctant to see this film, as i thought it was just another hostel type film...to a certain extent it was. it'll make you rethink about getting into a gambling debt with organized crime. either way by the time you get to the cheese grater scene things pick up REAL quick. i must say the ending was almost telegraphed with all the foreshadowing. but they keep it together long enough to hit you in the gut with the very dark menacing and bone chilling ending. and i heavily agree about the look of the film. it's low budget but you'll never know it, because it looks like a major mainstream picture. this should have definitely been a major release.this twisted little flick was a great find..

Chad and Scarlet are moving to a new city to start a new life. Things weren't so good in the old one. Chad has run up some debts and some bad men will stop at nothing to get their money. How Chad and Scarlet clear this marker is slowly revealed throughout the film. On the way to their new life Chad once again fouls things up and falls asleep at the wheel, causing a crash. Now on foot, the couple seek refuge in an old farmhouse where they are welcomed at first - and tortured next by the occupants - Lilith and her husband Samael. The cruel duo seem to know something of Chad and Scarlet's past and are exceptionally skilled torturers.The movie is not without any redemption. The production value was good. The acting was fine - though the characters themselves had little to offer. Screen writing 101 - if you want the audience to dislike a character simply have him gamble away all his savings and run up a huge debt - placing his family in mortal danger. Chad is a weak, ineffective character. His wife Scarlet is little better. So out of the gate it's difficult to root for them. However, one does hope they'll prevail if only to vanquish the true evil doers in the film - of which there are two sets; the largely unseen thugs threatening to kill Chad and his wife if they don't pay Chad's gambling debts and the duo of Lilith and Samael. Spoilers: But there is no vanquishing here. Evil prevails. The thugs get their blood soaked money and, save a brief few minutes of screen time, Lilith and Sam maintain the upper hand. We, the audience, are given not a single frame of film to breath. From the opening sequence to the end credits, the movie is depressing and/or tension filled. Shakespeare wrote that the audience must be allowed at least three moments in each play to breath and laugh. Farmhouse failed to deliver even one. I fear this is a sin I have committed a few times in my own efforts to make a film and am now sensitive to it.

This is a very decent psychological thriller horror with some excellent acting and there is nothing cheap or cheerful about this movie, I like movies which make you think and ask questions and this film - a little bit like Lovely Bones recently - makes you do that.The film in a way also reminds me of the recent horror Vacancy with the couple on the run and the couple conveniently being in a range of a farmhouse when they crash the car.Chad has a gambling problem - but why was he gambling? And how was the 25K paid? I assume the house where they lived was rented, not owned, and they gave the furniture away to a neighbour, so took nothing away with them in the car, or so it seemed.The girl clearly had a problem in childcare and a healthcare issue with her baby. They both had a problem and the visitation to the farmhouse was a sort of addressing of their guilt and wrongs, so how I seem the drowning of the girls head and the prompt for Chad to justify himself as a man and try and save her.There is A TOUCH of SAW 6 in this morality (if there is any morality).The deaf guy is a key character in the story but is he the only worker to be employed on such a large vineyard 30 miles from anywhere? Absurd but intriguing. The sinister couple too busy bonking to put their hand to the hands on management of the vineyard.Great ending but I still don't get the opening scene when Scarlet the girl is a child and is flash backed again at the end. Need to watch again for further curiosity.Overall, excellent thriller, not top-drawer but enjoyable in this specific film sector although why they persist in including mindless eroticism (sex scene with the open door) is quite beyond me. A theme of many of such films of dateI have some AFTERTHOUGHTS to my original posting.Of course what has happened is that the couple have wronged with the death of their child and perhaps cashed in an insurance Policy to meet the gambling debt and fund a getaway. But this is wrong through the eyes of God and the car accident is their penitence and punishment for eternity, hence the role played by Lil and Samyel, although brutal and horrific, is intended to send a very clear message - and it surely does.In life there is no second chance. there is also a slight moral connection with the Cohens A Serious Man (but only slight).Wow, this is a real thinking film, there is definitely a similarity in this movie with what happened to the little girl in Lovely Bones and the couple in the car crash. Enjoy this movie, its great!