100 Bloody Acres is “the kind of gory or splattery film you could take your mother to.” That is, according to brothers and co-directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes.
“This is a film that celebrates squeamishness,” announce the pair, who, being interviewed over the phone, are almost impossible to distinguish. “We definitely wanted to make an impact.”
The Australian comedy-horror feature, to be released in Australia later this year, follows two brothers Reg (Damon Herriman) and Lindsay (Angus Sampson) who run an organic fertiliser business. The pair run into a spot of bother when their supply of their secret ingredient – human flesh -is running low, prompting Reg to make a snap decision when he runs into a group of three twenty-somethings in need of a ride.
“I mean, it’s a fairly familiar narrative isn’t it? All through the years we’ve had films like Sweeney Todd, The Corpse Grinders, Motel Hell… it’s a familiar premise, and as good as premise as any,” Cairnes says.
The film has already enjoyed positive reviews in the U.S, somewhat surprising the brothers who feared American audiences may not ‘get’ the Aussie humour.
“We thought a lot of it would go over their heads. There a lot of specific cultural references in there. But they’re obviously getting it. They’re just getting wrapped up in the story and characters and world.
“I think the Australiana element to it – and we didn’t go out of our way to make it that way – but it is essentially a story in the bush… I think those kind of things do play as being a bit exotic overseas. It’s a lot of fun. I mean we’d love to see it with subtitles. It’s like a foreign film to them.
“Some journos over there were asking us how legitimate picking up road-kill is. It sounds ironic but they were being dead earnest. I think an Aussie audience will be the toughest audience of all. And that’s who we made it for – an Australian audience.”
100 Bloody Acres is the debut feature for the brothers, who say working together helped them achieve more in a short period of time.
“Before we made the film that was the first question everyone asked. ‘How’s it going to work when there’s two of you?’
“When we were writing, how we did it was to work on scenes separately and then come together. We’d edit each other. And then as a director – when you’re filming something and you only have five weeks to shoot a film, it’s a real advantage to have two guys being available.
“During the shoot cast and crew could come to either one of us and probably get the same answer, we pretty much operated as one. It meant we got by with this tight crazy schedule. They were calling us the Master Blaster from Mad Max 3.”
Despite the amount of gore featured in the film, around 90 per cent of the effects were caught in camera, something which the pair say they are proud of.
And as for the fake blood?
“Geez. Did we do a few hundred litres. I think we could have done with another 40 or 50 litres. There’s never enough blood. More blood. That’s the motto.”
100 Bloody Acres will have a limited national release on August 1.