Growing up on a farm may sound like an idyllic dream, a childhood surrounded by animals and nature… but not if you’re raised by horror veteran Richard Brake (3 From Hell, 31, Mandy)!
Twisted new horror The Dare sees the actor play a sadistic pig farmer who kidnaps a young boy. This doesn’t bode well for family man Jay, who is similarly kidnapped only to awaken chained to a wall in the bowels of the farm. With three other captives sharing his fate, the prisoners are forced to engage in a twisted battle with a captor hidden behind a gruesome skin mask… who will survive the bloody games?
Escaping onto Digital Download 5th October and DVD 12th October, The Dare will be unleashed in time for Halloween, so what better time to run down the bloodiest farm set horrors around…
THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)
Tobe Hooper’s controversial classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released in 1974 and remains one of the horror genre’s most terrifying films. When a group of teenagers are travelling through Texas on their way to visit their family home, they soon stumble upon a creepy looking farmhouse and become prey for some of The Lone Star State’s most deranged inhabitants – the Sawyer Family. Produced on a miniscule budget, director Hooper made the most of a few isolated locations and a small-cast to craft a film that’s packed with white-knuckle tension and horrifying imagery… including the iconic, unforgettable mug of the chainsaw-wielding killer Leatherface. A big hit on its release year earning over $30 million at the domestic box office, the film has become a long-running franchise with everyone’s favourite mask-wearing psychopath even getting an origin story in 2017’s Leatherface! A timeless slice of cinematic terror that will truly get under your skin…
CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)
From a short story by acclaimed horror scribe Stephen King, Fritz Kiersch’s Children of the Corn sees a young couple (played by Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) driving through Nebraska, when they come across a neglected, rundown farming town inhabited only by a small number of children. It soon transpires that the children (lead by the sinister Malachi) started a bloodthirsty cult. Worshipping an evil deity known as ‘He Who Walks Behind The Rows’ in the corn farms surrounding the town, the sinister youngsters led a revolution, killing all the local elders! With its eerie corn-field locations, zealously evil children and haunting score by Jonathan Elias, Children of the Corn is a fun and brutal 80s horror classic from one of the genre’s most revered writers. And sprouting no fewer than seven sequels with an eighth on the way for 2021, ‘He Who Walks Behind the Rows’ reign of terror is showing no signs of stopping!
THE CURSE (1987)
Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Colour Out of Space, The Curse takes place on a farm run by the Crane family in Tennessee. Terror begins when, one night, a meteor crashes into a field and starts infecting the farmland around it. As the ground becomes infected, so too do the animals with chickens, dogs and horses attacking the family and a cow exploding in a cloud of flies! The Curse marked the first time H.P. Lovecraft’s story had made it to the silver screen but in 2020 we were treated to another adaptation of the writer’s creepy classic, when Nicolas Cage took the lead in Richard Stanley’s neon-soaked horror Colour out of Space… which packed in a few infected Llamas for good measure. The Curse is a wild 80s horror film packed full of gooey practical effects, murderous farm animals and trippy, kaleidoscopic visuals where all hell breaks loose when an alien sickness lands on earth. A perfect midnight movie.
BLACK SHEEP (2006)
Terror takes hold of a New Zealand sheep farm in this horror-comedy which sees a flock mutate from dozy grass-grazers into vampiric monsters! It’s up to sheep-shy farmhand Henry to save the day, despite a crippling fear of mutton caused by a malicious prank played on him by brother Angus years earlier. With Angus all grown up, he’s now in the business of genetic tampering with his demented rams turning humans into half-sheep monsters with their infected bite. When the flock breaks loose, thanks to the efforts of a couple of environmental campaigners, Henry is back on the scene and forced to take on his brother and save the day. Queue over the top anarchy as the usually docile sheep go on the rampage, not to mention a giant sheep monster finale. This is one farm-set horror ewe don’t want to miss!
THE CONJURING (2013)
When director James Wan set his 2013 ghost story The Conjuring in a creepy old Rhode Island farmhouse, he likely had no idea he was setting up a movie universe that would span multiple sequels and spin-offs and make him one of the most important horror directors of recent years. The film is based on the chilling case files of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose exploits inspired the infamous novel, The Amityville Horror and many other infamous cases of hauntings and ghostly goings-on. The Warrens, played here by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, are summoned to the newly acquired farmhouse of the Perron family, who have been experiencing some chilling encounters with angry spirits. On further investigation all hell breaks loose with violent supernatural attacks, possession, and exorcism on the cards for the ghost-busting duo. Thanks to its old-school scares, creepy location and its true-life believability, the film became a certified horror smash, leading to a sequel, connected films including The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona… not to mention a hit franchise for the film’s breakout star Annabelle the haunted doll!
The Dare is available on Digital Download 5th October and DVD 12th October from Lionsgate UK
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