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| A lackluster prom night is transformed by shrooms in Karen Skloss's The Honor Farm (2017) |
Prom Night can be a great setting for horror films, especially because this "event" in a teen's life is so fraught with both expectation and disappointment. Karen Skloss's
The Honor Farm sets her surreal and dreamy coming-of-age tale on this fated evening, as teen Lucy (Olivia Grace Applegate) and her BFF Alice (Katie Folger) bounce back from their bummer evening to hang out with some "freaks and geeks," including the goth-cool Laila (Dora Madison) and the heartthrob J.D. (Louis Hunter) on their way to the sinister "Honor Farm"--a former prison, now abandoned, that is rumored to have been the site for murder, torture, and ritual sacrifice. Oh, and did I mention that they are all tripping on mushrooms?? That's the kicker, and part of the real charm of the film.
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| Tripping teens bonding over awesome/nightmare visions |
Drew Tinnin from Dread Central writes that the film contains,
"Imagery of the occult and moments that would make David Lynch proud;" and indeed, the film's surrealist and evocative images are dependent on the inclusion of psychedelics to the narrative. While it may not be the wisest choice to visit a haunted abandoned prison on one's first "trip," Lucy and Alice are in remarkably friendly and supportive hands. The kids who introduce them to drugs are not horrible teens, and throughout their journey bond in changing groups of two, three, and four. Yet the majority of the film focuses on Lucy, who early on is established as having a rich fantasy and dream-life. Her voice-over grounds the film and gives spectators a perspective through which to experience the film's world.
Lucy's narration and POV really emphasize the female-oriented focus of the film, and as it was co-written by Skloss and her teenage daughter, the film's voice feels very authentic. The Honor Farm carries forth the wonder and anxiety involved in being a teenage girl, and much of the film's occult imagery replicates some of the pagan goddess/wiccan symbolism out there, while also exploring tropes of femininity and virginity common to the coming-of-age genre. One of the striking cameos that is uncredited on IMDB is the role of Laura--a woman who appears to be the victim of a sexual assault/pagan sacrifice, but becomes more of a trigger for Lucy's incipient transformation from girl to woman. I didn't get a chance to ask Skloss (whom, btw, was just so warm, friendly, and cool) at the screening, but I'd swear that brief role is played by Michelle Forbes, who always elevates every work in which she plays a part. If not, she's a definite look-alike, channeling a goddess figure similar to her Maenad character in True Blood.
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| J.D. and Lucy "meet cute" in the oddest places |
The film contains moments that are just a touch too "teenage" for my tastes, as the sudden romance between J.D. and Lucy attests. Still, I admire that Lucy was portrayed as a young woman with burgeoning desires, unafraid to express them, and all the male characters in the film, while almost entirely supports for the female characters, were not jerks, or dicks, or a-holes (except, maybe, Lucy and Alice's original prom dates). I think that J.D.'s unabashed sweetness and respectfulness for Lucy was written very thoughtfully and carefully from a female POV to both appeal to and educate audience members on the politics of representation. One also gets the sense that the experience this group of 8 teens share will create some very strong bonds.
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| The girls attack with makeshift weapons |
While I'm really not a fan of horror comedies, The Honor Farm made me laugh out loud many times, from the pitch perfect representations of tripping on mushrooms (with all of its assorted fascinations), to the spunky, intrepid way the female characters showed strength, curiosity, and resourcefulness. None of these young women are your average victims, and some of the lines popping out of their mouths not only felt "teen-real," but were downright hilarious. Further, Sinclair's (Liam Akin's) enthusiastic munching of the entire bag of shrooms led to a spot-on interpretation of an owl, and an impromptu call to one's Mom adds just the right tone.
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| Teens hide from the crazed Dentist |
Not to say that there are not some genuine scary moments in the film. The "honor farm" itself is the perfect setting for a bunch of claustrophobic scares, heightened by the dimly-lit flashlights employed and the truly sinister underground tunnels. When some of the kids stumble upon what looks like a ritual sacrifice, with a baby lamb in tow, things take a real turn toward the dangerous and terrifying. What makes the Honor Farm really unique is that you actually care about these kids, and much of the menace is hoping that nothing too terrible happens to them. Strikingly, the film never makes certain what actually happens in the film's diegesis (because shrooms), and that ambiguity really makes an artful impact on the film as a whole. For her debut fiction feature (she has a feature documentary under her belt), Karen Skloss creates a moving portrait of girlhood with all of its fears and pleasures, and places it in an ambiguous dream realm both scary and funny. A triumph, and I hope she continues to work in the genre for years to come.
