Frenchman's Farm (1986)

Sick Product of a Sick System

A Disappointing Continuation

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

An 80s Aussie lassie goes for a drive in the country and suddenly finds herself in the 40s (cue: 40s car and music.) She pops out of her car to figure out what's going on, which is a bad idea because she witnesses a murder! Ooooh! She time-warps back to the 80s, and enlists her boyfriend to help her solve the mystery of the 40s murder. Eh. This really isn't that bad, it's just way too long. It almost feels like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" and really would have worked better as a half hour short. The villain is indeed creepy and it does have an eerie atmosphere going for it, but the bigger picture is just too bland. Admittedly, I was distracted throughout most of the film, but it was hard not to be.

I was quite surprised when I put on Frenchman's Farm to watch to discovered the bloody thing was Australian. I was expecting a run of the mill US slasher flick but it was neither of those. Maybe it is churlish or mean spirited of me to react in such as way to the produce of my own country but on the whole Australian films are really bad, Australian horror films included. I think it has a lot to do with the movies trying self consciously to be distinctly Australian instead of just telling a story or by trying to ape US releases but without the technical expertise or budgets- even Australian shlock isn't up to scratch. As it turns out the film wasn't actually all that bad- okay it wasn't very good either but it wasn't painfully bad as I feared it would be the second I heard strong ocker accents.As I said the film isn't really a slasher. I suppose its a horror/mystery/ghost story if you had genreise it. The movie opens with our heroine Jackie (Tracy Tainsh) leaving her parents place in rural Queensland (Whilst the countryside is being ravaged by bushfire no less, she is apparently in a hurry). Whilst she is driving across the countryside she is unknowingly transported back in time to the 1940's. The first sign of this is the radio starts playing 40's music, which came as something of a relief given the bad '80's pop she was listening to. Anyway, she soon finds herself witness to the murder of a man in an Australian army uniform whilst he is digging in a field. She is chased by the assailant, a crazy curly-headed dude with an axe but escapes and is transported back to the present (Well the '80's- which we all wish was the present- don't we?). She eventually accepts she had been back in time when she tracks down a newspaper article describing the murder she witnessed, which is fair enough given the biggest clues she had been given were the archaic music and cars, references to World War II as a recent event and old newspapers. The man identified in the story as the murderer is not the man she saw doing the killing. The rest of the movie involves Tracy and her mulleted boyfriend Barry (David Reyne), who sings in a bad '80's band, investigating.Unfortunately that is pretty much it. Most of this plodding movie follows the two of them wandering around the farm (named because it original owner was French, why couldn't he be from Abyssinia) and the nearby town. This consists of endlessly discussing the history of the place with the locals, digging holes etc. The mystery isn't that interesting and quite predictable- basically a ghostly Frenchman protecting his loot and not a lot happens till the very end. There isn't even that much in the way of suspense or tension other than one false scare scene whilst our leads are skinny-dipping (Sadly we get a better look at Barry than the more fetching Tracy). There is little flair in the directing and the leads are kind of dull. Tracy Tainsh looks good in a pair of shorts which she is kind enough to walk around in for most of the running time and is a decent actress but her character is unexciting and Barry (How Ocker can you get name-wise short of calling him Bruce) is a not that interesting a fellow either a bit of a dullard at times. The kind of guy who sees no problem ethically or legally, despite being a law student, with breaking into a crypt and opening up someone's coffin. Fortunately they get through his skepticism scenes fairly quickly, which makes the character rather trusting but too many scenes of protagonists trying to prove to a partner that such and such supernatural event happened can really slow a movie down and this movie really doesn't need any slowing down.There is a subplot involving a couple of policemen looking into the case which mostly involved spooky things happening to the police computer. To the modern viewer '80s computers are already weird and spooky, not to mention clunky and charming. Whenever they try and consult the police database about the murders it prints out random clues and the files are erased. Needless to say this is kind of goofy- that the forces at work which seem otherwise restricted to one small geographic locations can reach out like this. I'm guessing this plot element was considered innovative at the time, when computers were still a fairly new thing. To be pedantic, it also seems weird that there is no paper copy of any of the police records. These characters don't' really do much either and do not really become involved in the main plot until the very end.As mentioned not much happens until the end and even then it's not all that much. There aren't any big revelations or surprises. A human villain is revealed along with the ghostly one but his role in events is unclear and underwhelming in terms of motivation and action. It's hardly a surprise either, even it weren't obvious from the get go he was up to something because of his role in the movie blatant clues such as other characters frequently commenting on him being suspicious give it away. Jackie and Barry don't end up doing much and nor do the police.The movie does have a few things going for it. The title character is a fairly effective villain- he certainly looks crazy and rather creepy. A ghostly Frenchman- brrr. I also got a nostalgic chuckle out of 80's Australianisms -the hairstyles, music, acting style etc. Frenchman's Farm is an okay way to spend a 100 minutes but I wouldn't seek it by any means and it's biggest plus in my book was simply not being grating and annoying as I had initially feared it might be.

Or so says the leading man in the film at one point. Sadly, he's wrong. This might have made a middling 30 minute episode of some TV series like 'Tales from the Darkside,' but doesn't cut it as a full length film. Other reviewers say the ending was the best thing about this but if you'd seen or read a number of horror/mystery films/stories, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen.Still, it's OK in it's own way if your expectations are set suitably low and the idea itself is reasonable. A murder in the past continues into the present.They didn't push the boat out with the special effects though, the journey into the past of the 1940's is portrayed by the radio playing old songs and war news, a newspaper will a war headline and a vehicle from the period. Well...that would convince anyone they'd gone through a time warp....er....perhaps not.

This aussie flick starts off good,i liked the tale of it,it was well thought of,and the scenes were done fairly well.The girl finds herself in the past,40 years in the past,she witnesses a murded,a guy got wrongfully accused,she goes back to investigate with scepticle boyfriend,blah blah blah yada yada yada.What im trying to say is the film gets boring,they just walk around talking to people,asking things,touching things,bringing back flashbacks,at times many scenes were irrelivant,and the film wasnt scary,the only scary thing was the frenchmans face...VERY freaky! The film goes downhill,they talk too much,not enought relevant material,they do a little treasure digging,its just all too much to be good..UNTIL the great ending,watch it for its ending,a perfect twist to a bad movie.OVERALL I GIVE FRENCHMANS FARM (4 out of 10)GOOD POINTS OF FILM:Good Start,Few Twists,Good Ending.BAD POINTS OF FILM:Irrelevant Scenes,Boring,Lacks in horror Genre.