One that peaked my interest after hearing several people talk about the Gold Ninja Video release, I decided to pick up Freaky Farley based on the cover and a brief trailer, and to save it for a Halloween viewing. Well; its Halloween season, so I dug it out expecting somewhat campy horror shenanigans and…its not quite that…But it does still have some stuff going for it!

The plot follows ‘Freaky Farley’ a Vouyeristic 25 year old teenager with a troubled past. When Farley was a kid, his mother left the family to head up to a log cabin in the woods that they owned, to help set it up for the annual family vacation, only for her to never return. Farleys father, devestated at the loss of his wife, became cold to Farley, setting an unreasonable ‘hole digging’ punishment for even the most minor infractions, and setting him daily tests on a radio show he hosts.

Farley isnt allowed to pursue his dreams of becoming a park ranger, nor is he allowed to even attend college. His Dad is adamant that HE will find Farley a job, and that Farley will accept it graciously and do it till the day he dies…Something Farley isnt exactly thrilled about.

Through the course of the film we follow Farley as he travels around his local town meeting strange locals and befriending some of the residents, till a chance encounter with a homeless man who talks of the ‘Trogs’ in the woods that kill and eat people, sends Farley down a rabbit hole that will lead to murder, investigation and a plan that’ll unite the city!

Now. Up front, Is ‘Freaky Farley’ a halloween movie? No. No I dont think it really is. I would personally say it was more of a Autumnal/Fall movie. Theres a background visual theme around pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns turn up a handful of times across the runtime. But noone acknowledges its Halloween, it doesnt play into the plot, and any ‘Horror’ elements are reserved really to the back third of the movie. Its probably on me for not deciding to more heavily investigate this films plot. But I thought I was diving into a film about an isolationist peeping tom who winds up befriending someone, and the pair end up getting into spooky seasonal shenanigans. It really isnt that.

What this IS, is a fairly slow paced ‘realism’ script thats uplifted by surreal line deliveries, studded with the occasional more whimsical moment and a final act that goes briefly into a world of fantasy.

For the bulk of the film, its quite remeniscent structurally to ‘Silent Night Deadly Night 2’ with Farley recounting the events that led him up to being put under psychiatric observation. Farley even comments in the film that he’s had a dozen or so doctors before the current one (which is literally a line said by Ricky in SNDN2) before essentially going a little bit ‘Troll 2’ in the final 15 minutes. And thats fine enough as a structure. But it brings with it some problems of its own.

Probably the biggest issue being that I think the film struggles really to define what it wants to be, does it want to be a campy take on the slowburn slasher genre?, does it want to be a fairly straight drama with a surreal twist at the end? or does it want to avoid the actual horror elements altogether and go more metaphorical? Its hard to say really. But it can be frustrating in trying to understand the films motives.

Thats not to say this is an unpleasent film to sit through, the pace may be a bit on the slow side, but theres plenty of fun moments here, and pretty much any scene that Matt Farley is in (Our own ‘Freaky’ Farley) is a definite highlight here, he plays the character with a sluggish physicality, but an almost pee-wee(ish) whimsy. With line deliveries astounding on occasion, its a bizarre contrast that is quite pleasent.

Unfortunately though, probably the biggest thing that hinders this production is the 2nd act. See; the film starts off fine enough, and ends in a surreal space thats maybe a little underwhelming, but it still pretty solid…But that 2nd act? is a crawl. Its the age old tale of: ‘We have to hit feature runtime, and there needs to be time before ‘Setup A’ can be resolved for it to make sense narratively…So we basically just need to make up a load of scenes of Farley running around the woods and neighbourhoods, tubing on a river, or conversations that repeat the same points over and over to artificially extend the runtime.

And like a sandbag on a hot air balloon, thats the thing that really pulls this thing down. By the end of the opening act, I felt like it had been a bit sluggish, but it had at least set up the characters, their motivations and a mystery to solve across the films runtime. But that second act just DRAGS…SO bad. till we get to the third act and the handful of crumbs we’ve been given get rolled back into everything we heard in the first act to take us into the finale. It made it INCREDIBLY difficult to get back into the 3rd act and by the time I was back on board, it was basically over. Which was a real shame.

The characters too arnt exactly the best developed in the world. This is the kind of movie where its a bit more acceptable to have blunted characters, because thats part of the narrative. But even so, we dont really get much in the way of complexity or arcs or…anything really Farley starts the film as a strange peeping tom, and by the end of it, not a whole lot has changed, and he’s basically expected to save the town and then return to his asylum. This combined with the dialogue choices which are stilted and ultra basic, often overcomplicating the dialogue rather than simplifying it to keep it as basic as possible. works in the world the film makers are intending to make, while coming across as awkward and flat more broadly…with mixed end results.

The direction is a bit rough around the edges. I believe this was the crews first time shooting on super 16mm film, and there were noted technical problems across the production period that prevented the best possible outcomes. With that in mind, this isnt half bad. Theres definitely a clear vision present here, and; as mentioned, with this being an autumnal movie, they do manage to capture the crisp orange, yellows and reds of Autumn here.

Direction of the cast is a bit flat however, cast members generally just sort of…stand around vaguely in frame, they dont really move naturalistically. Generally speaking if say, 3 cast members are hanging around in a kitchen, one may be doing dishes, one may be eating some cereal and another may have just walked in, and the conversation would take place while these activities were going on. Not in this movie! instead that same scnee would just be 3 people sat at a table with maybe a newspaper or bowl of cereal being in the shot…and they’ll just be talking at each other for the full scene, uninterrupted. Which is a bit odd to sit through honestly.

Cine isnt too sharp either, shots are wobbly, focal points are sometimes a bit off, and compositional choices range from genuinely brilliant, through to me not fully understanding what im supposed to be looking at within the frame. The sequences are cut together about as well as the footage will allow, but I really feel some more B-roll would have just pulled this one up a little more.

Performance wise, Matt Farley as ‘Freaky Farley’ is definitely the high water mark. Eccentric, manic at times and frantic. If you watch this movie for no other reason, Matts performance is the one. Especially the work he does with Kevin McGee who plays Farleys father in this film. he’s blunt, moralistic and demanding, and the two character play off each other really nicely. giving some mild ‘Carrie’ vibes to proceedings as tensions rise.

All in all? I dont really think ‘Freaky Farley’ is ‘Must see’ cinema. its a fine enough surrealist drama. and it definitely fits in nicely with an autumn schedule. But I feel like the marketing on this one oversold the ‘horror’ element a little bit, which threw me on hitting play and it took a LONG time to get back into the right headspace after that. I think on a rewatch, in the right headspace, I’ll probably like this one more. But as it stands, I just kind of came away from it thinking it was a film ‘of good moments’ but not inherently a ‘good film’ .

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/freaky-farley/