Chad and Scarlett are looking for a fresh start. Thanks to the death of their child and Chad's gambling debts that have violent thugs threatening their well-being, the couple take to the road until a near fatal accident leaves them stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Walking to the nearest farmhouse, Chad (William Lee Scott) and Scarlett (Jamie Anne Allman) meet Lilith and Samael (Kelly Hu and Steven Webber) who take them in for the night with the promise of delivering them to town in the morning.
But after a night of eating and drinking, Lilith and Samael prove to be anything but the warm and inviting hosts that they projected. As the evening descends, Lilith and Samael engage in various tortures of the young couple beginning with a suffering experiment where Chad must hold the weight of his Scarlett's weight between his teeth to avert her drowning.
The hours before dawn will have Chad and Scarlett in one do or die circumstance after another where their decisions and a mysterious link to their past will have intense, bloody and painful repercussions.
Farmhouse was directed by George Bessudo who was last in control behind the camera for Lake Dead (2007), one of the 8 Films to Die For series. Bessudo shows some real maturity with Farmhouse creating, at times, a threatening atmosphere and two involving baddies in Lilith and Samael.
The violence in Farmhouse is typical of most horrors which dabble in the gore/torture porn genre. A particular scene of an eyeball being plucked with a pocket knife was most noticeably cringe inducing moment.
Based on a script by Jason Hice and Daniel P. Coughlin, Farmhouse is a better than average horror film that is able to develop interesting characters in a ghastly if not unfamiliar scenario.
There are many flashbacks in Farmhouse which will inevitably have you trying to determine the purpose of the past to present shooting scenes. But we will suggest you don't read too much into the couple's past and let things play out as intended.
The final chapters of Farmhouse were both interesting and a bit disappointing with the make-up and special effects that are essential to the final reveal and closure to the couple's evening. Although I appreciated the small twist, the execution of what is arguably the most important scene in the film seemed alienated from the rest of the film and lacked the quality required to execute the climax with above average flair.
The downturn towards the end credits do take away some of the generated momentum of its earlier moments, but Farmhouse is still a film that is worth a mild recommendation.
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