Escape From Cannibal Farm Overlooked Indie B-Movies
The Indie B-Grade movie, Escape From Cannibal Farm is like Texas Chainsaw but bad. Where to watch movies using the link JustWatch.com
There’s something charming about the optimism of a low-budget horror film. You can almost smell the passion wafting off the plastic entrails. Escape From Cannibal Farm aims to be a throwback to grindhouse greats like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, and it almost is. It’s just missing… well, a point.
The Setup:
A family embarks on a camper van holiday, clearly unaware they’re trapped in a script scribbled in blood, sweat, and genre clichés. From the moment their van stutters into a backwoods farm cloaked in cliché and cow dung, the destination feels less “relaxing countryside getaway” and more “DIY slaughterhouse.”
They’re greeted by locals whose hospitality is the kind that includes pokers through necks and skin masks. The tension is immediate, if not entirely earned. Predictable? Certainly. But not without a certain homespun charm.
Characters: Cardboard Cutouts in Human Suits
The ensemble includes:
- A belligerent man, inexplicably angry at everything (possibly even himself).
- A frisky couple shoehorned in to keep the rating spicy.
- A teenage boy played by a 30-something actor doing his best “youthful confusion” impersonation.
- Katherine, his wife, and possibly the only one who remembered they were making a film.
To say they’re underdeveloped would be generous. They’re archetypes—drawn with the emotional range of an IKEA instruction manual. That said, their demise is oddly satisfying. Whether this is a win or a warning sign is up to the viewer.
Direction & Tone: A Bloody Ode to Grindhouse Excess with Shaky Handwriting
Director Charlie Steeds wears his influences on his sleeve—and his sleeve appears to be made of skin. There’s love for the genre here, no doubt. The kill scenes are enthusiastically gory, with highlights including an impressively staged accident and a grim impalement via poker. The effects are cheap, sure, but they punch above their weight in creativity.
Unfortunately, what could’ve been a kitschy cult hit buckles under its own narrative weight. The plot tries for twists, there’s even a mid-film reveal that aims for depth, but these turns feel unearned, like someone decided at the last minute that this film needed a message.
Performances: Overacting or Art?
Performances oscillate between overwrought and undercooked. You start to wonder if the theatrical delivery was intentional, perhaps a self-aware nod to grindhouse excess. But the lack of consistency kills the theory. Only Katherine offers any tonal stability, managing to ground her role while chaos swirls around her.
There’s one scene, a conversation between mother and daughter, that briefly toys with horror meta-commentary, hinting at a smarter script buried beneath the blood. Sadly, it’s never revisited. The film, like its characters, seems afraid of introspection.
Production Value: Gore Galore, But Wardrobe by Wish.com
The gore is fun. The rest? Less so. The set design feels like an afterthought. Costumes look borrowed from a community theatre wardrobe department. The farmhouse setting could’ve oozed dread, but it’s lit like a soap opera and framed like a student project.
Final Thoughts: Not Quite Cult, Not Quite Catastrophe
Escape From Cannibal Farm isn’t terrible, it’s just aggressively average. An enthusiastic homage to backwoods cannibal slashers that forgets to stamp the envelope. It tries to be clever and gritty but winds up more clumsy than cutting. Still, if your expectations are buried somewhere under a pig trough in rural England, you might find something to enjoy.
Verdict:
🩸 1.5 inexplicably angry campers out of 5 – Mother of Movies spruced up the original poster. This is the original.
Where to Watch Escape From Cannibal Farm
Director and Writer: Charlie Steeds
Release: Obscura Film Festival straight to VOD October 2017
Production: Dark Temple Motion Pictures | Distributors: High Octane Pictures and Encripta.
The cast for Escape Cannibal Farm: Kate Davies-Speak, Barrington De La Roche, and David Lenik.
The film is available to watch for free in several countries, such as the USA and Canada. Escape From Cannibal Farm is not available to stream in Australia.
Escape From Cannibal Farm Now streaming on:
Escape From Cannibal Farm was released in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray on May 13th, 2019. Buy it or watch it, indie is always worth your time. We recommend watching Chainsaws Were Singing | Blood and Honey 2 | Mary Had a Little Lamb or Sawed Off if chainsaws and horror are your thing.
