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Freaky Farley
[Motern Media]
2007; color
Directed by Charles Roxburgh
Starring: Matt Farley, Kevin McGee, Sharon Scalzo, Steff Deschenes & James McHugh
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Freaky Farley is charming in the old 'Hey gang, let's put on a show!' tradition - assuming the show involves a loner psychopath who go on a killing spree and then recounts it to a shrink. Shot on a ridiculously small budget (which, we learn from the bonus featurette, relied as much on the barter system as it did on cold hard cash) in and around the outskirts of Manchester, NH, the movie revolves around a character named Farley. All the locals have dubbed him 'Freaky Farley' as he's the local peeping Tom. (A fact everyone in town is aware of, yet no one seems to care enough about to make him stop.) Farley is a socially withdrawn 20-something who lives with his domineering widowed father, a local radio host, who quizzes his son on his show's content every day to make sure he's listening. Anything Farley does wrong, which seems to be everything in Dad's eyes, results in the punishment of being sent out back to dig and then refill a four foot wide by four foot deep hole. His father even admits there's no point to it but, nonetheless, Farley's got the shovel in his hand almost every day. He's far from the only freaky person in the town however; there's the Ninja, the English poet, the bearded hobo and the girl next door who's Farley's age but rides around on a kid's bike and acts about 10. Farley's life of peeping is endangered by his dad's insistence he get a job; something he has zero interest in. In fact, the only thing besides peeping that does interest him is Scarlett, the new girl in town who's an aspiring writer and as much a peeper as Farley. Farley and Scarlett start hanging together all the time and, although Farley has a huge crush on her, nothing physical ever happens between them. They investigate the haunted woods outside of town, specifically to retrieve Farley's rafting inner tube from the bearded hobo and see if said hobo's ravings about dangerous Troggs in the woods is true. (And no, not the kind of Troggs who sang "Wild Thing"; we're talking about mossy, swampy creatures with sharp claws and a taste for blood.) Eventually Farley snaps from all the pressure his dad has him under, stabs the old man and goes on a mini killing spree which results in his incarceration in a mental facility. We learn that, in his rage, Farley has the ability to kill Troggs. No one else seems to be able to do this and the Troggs, who've apparently been in the woods for decades, are beginning to kill people closer and closer to town. So, Farley, the Ninja and the local witch are summoned by the mayor to try and kill the Troggs once and for all, leading to a crazy confrontation and followed by a revenge-laden conclusion. Freaky Farley is not cinema verite, nor should it be construed as such; in fact, most people are probably gonna think it's true bottom-of-the-barrel fare. It's also got a Troma-esque feel, in a homemade sort of way, and that's what makes it work for me.
—the Kommandant
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