CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Film Review: Clever ‘100 Bloody Acres’ Finds Horror-Comedy Balance
Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “We’re not psychos, all right?!?! We’re small business operators.” It’s been awhile since there was a horror-comedy as fun as “100 Bloody Acres,” opening today in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre, and playing in some other markets around the country. It’s not a perfect genre entry but this blend of comedy and horror, so expertly tackled by filmmakers like Sam Raimi & Edgar Wright, is much harder to pull off than it looks (as evidenced by mountains of horror-comedies that aren’t funny or scary). “100 Bloody Acres” pulls it off, finding some dark strains of humor and some grisly moments to go with them. For genre fans, it’s a definite success.
Reg Morgan (Damon Herriman of “Justified”) runs a fertilizer business with his brother Lindsay (Angus Sampson). Reg is the meeker, gentler of the two, while brother Lindsay is a giant of a man, an imposing force who looks like he stepped off the set of a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake. The Morgans are just trying to get their business going when a nearby car accident drops a gift in their lap. It turns out that car crash victims make great fertilizer. They use the bodies and life goes on as normal until Reg finds another body on the side of the road months later and decides to try it again. He dumps the body in his truck and takes off for his plant.
Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “100 Bloody Acres” in our reviews section. |
Reg runs into, almost quite literally, two guys and a girl on a road trip. Sophie (Anna McGahan) is sleeping with both her boyfriend and the other friend with whom she’s travelling. Reg also seems quite smitten with the beautiful young lady, and doesn’t quite think straight when he agrees to give her a ride in the cab of his truck while the two guys hang out in the back…with the body they inevitably find. When they get back to the farm, Lindsay tries to clean up Reg’s mess, turning the first body into product and tying up the three newbies, one of whom is on a numbing acid trip. Things get both sillier and bloodier from there.
100 Bloody Acres
Photo credit: Music Box Films