After spending 5 years in prison for refusing to testify against the major boss of a crime syndicate named "Mr. Senti" (played by Gerard Kennedy), "Julian" (Paul J. Murphy) is rewarded for his loyalty by being put in charge of the "Hobby Farm" which is an illegal brothel using Eastern European sex slaves. From the very start of the film we see that "Jules" (as Julian is often called) is not happy with this assignment. In one particular incident, a new girl from Poland named "Tatiana" (Jessica Turner) is dumped off at the Hobby Farm by two thugs, "Steve" (Dean Baker) and "Alfonso" (John Freeman), after being kidnapped, beaten and raped. Julian protests about how she has been treated but his words fall on deaf ears. Even worse, Mr. Senti decides to send an extremely vicious and sadistic ex-convict named "Con" to supposedly help Julian. Again, Julian's concerns are ignored. To further complicate matters, Julian has to rely upon a completely incompetent assistant named "Vince" (Wayne Dixon) who regularly informs on him to Julian's immediate boss "Luca" (Vincent Sorrenti). Needless to say, tensions escalate to a boiling point and Julian is forced to make some critical decisions on how to deal with his situation. Anyway, having discussed the basic plot I would now like to list a few faults. First, because the subject involves the seamy world of sex slavery, this film has some rather raw and brutal scenes which add realism but might turn off some viewers. There is also some difficulty understanding some of the dialogue because the Australian accents are so heavy. Another factor involves the title of the movie. My version (which I just bought) goes by the title of "Chained" while IMDb lists it under "Hobby Farm". This might cause some confusion with people who want to check out the movie but are unaware that it goes by different titles. At any rate, while some of these faults might lower the overall value of the film, they don't necessarily render it unworthy to watch. On a positive note, while the supporting cast was basically adequate, I thought both Paul J. Murphy and Jessica Turner performed exceptionally well. Likewise, the plot has a few twists and turns that manages to keep the film interesting as well. That said, even though this film certainly has its flaws, I thought it was generally a satisfactory movie overall.
Review of Hobby Farm
