The Field

It's nowhere near as bad as the last two reviewers. Yes it is deeply flawed but still interesting. Yes it does drag a bit but again is saved by the overall interesting story.

Veronica Cartwright is awesome as usual and play a very sympathetic strange old lady. But she does it very well.

Barry Bostwick is well. Barry Bostwick.

Not a lot is resolved by the end of the movies but enough is if you have paid attention to the town clerk conversation and looked at the photos they find in the attic and barn.

Other than that I would say it is worth a sit through when you want something quieter and strange or are exhausted of all the terrible stuporhero nonsense that is out there.

This is one of those weird movies that fits in-between the usual ghost/spirit/supernatural films. I guess you have to be in the right mood to even watch it, because I found myself getting frustrated at certain points. By the end, though, I just enjoyed the ride.

A Chicago couple buys a farm in a small town to get away from the chef job that was taking up too much of the husband's time. It so happens to have a weird field out back that, thanks to the husband's love of photography, they discover harbors a strange secret. One that the town seems to know but aren't terribly forthcoming about. A strange woman lives at the edge of their property and wanders around at all times, seemingly drawn to the same field. The sheriff, in particular, is very protective of her. We get a few hints that people may have disappeared in the field, or some odd sacrifice-y things may have occurred in the past, but, thanks to the photography of the husband, it's possible those people are not quite gone.

Despite nothing ever being really clear, I would stress that I found this to be a great movie, with great acting by some great supporting talent - Veronica Cartwright, Barry Bostwick and Mark Metcalf. It even has a nice, happy ending. Or does it?

My streaming service classified this within the Horror genre. IMBD has it as Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Drama- which is correct. No horror. In short, I really enjoyed it, but it's full of dropped story lines, stiff acting, and lack of explanation. The end is a good 'wrap up" in some weys but doesn't go far enough. .A 30-somehting couple have just escaped from Chicago rat race to buy a 1000 acre farm with the requistte farmhouse charm and large barn, near a picturesque town. The don't plan to farm, just enjoy the nature, seclusion and warm-country atmosphere. The husband is a budding photographer and immediately begins his snapping pictures. Incljuding one of his nearest neighbor who had ambled to his house. When the owner of the town's only gallery sees the neighbor in the photo, he becomes hostile and kicks the husband out. We can see that the owner jumped to an incorrect conclusion. Soon the whole town knows about this city couple who's moved in and, in their view, causing upneset. Later his photographs in the field in front of his house included some strange things including people that husband could see. Meanwhile the wife is rummaging through the detritus left by the prior occupant. She finds photos and objects that suggest the former occupants were into something occult or evil. This coupled with the odd photographs and townsfolk's hostility, leads the wife to fear the farm is haunted and leading to marital friction. Meanwhile the Sherriff is hassling them relentlessly. And the husband becomes increasingly obssessed with discovering the rationale for the oddities.. Without providing spoiler, the freakiness is dealt with-kind of. The film is beautifully shot, the audience feels the positive experience of the couple starting out their new rural life.

The script isn't great, and/or the actors don't seem to be authentically embracing it. Also, when the husband encounter's the townsfolks misunderstandings about their purpose there, he just sort of walks away. He doesn't, in any meaningful way, disabuse them of their negative assumptions. The hostility and mistrust leads to increasing the and sherriff's paranoia. It's just not realistic. There are several threads/ideas in the film that are just left hanging with no resolution. Even the main mystery is never really explained. If this was 1950s or 1960's Sci-Fi film, the couple would have found a scientist who would provide some explanation. But this film lacks the ubiquitous scientist, Many scenes are "one-off" scenes with no connection to the core plot. .I think this is the film's greatest shortcoming. There aren't evern any theories that the audience could work with to wrap it up. There's also some scenes that either never added to the plot, or did, but a previous scene is now deleted/edited out. For example, there's a "inn-town" scene of an exchange between the husband and clerk: The conversation they engage in is intentionally weird, but it seems to be a follow-up on a previous conversation that they had had. Except we've never seen the first encounter (as far as I can recall). The banter between the clerk and husband is makes no sense, and doesn't add to the film an any way. If you can live with plot holes, misdirection, and not the best acting, this is worth seeing. It's fun, has some satisfying righteous and positive moments.

Within 20 minutes this film went from odd to awful with a local getting belligerent over a simple photo taken by our newcomer (Ben). Following this encounter he is met by another judgmental local assuming some "big city" person just wants to take advantage of poor helpless folk. He took a picture and he is a monster? After this the film continues to leave you lost and confused about the "mystery" of what happened years ago at the farm our newcomers (Ben & Lydia) purchased from an obviously shady realtor who clearly didn't disclose the dark secrets of their new home. We see Ben and Lydia acting as amateur sleuths and part time creepers searching for answers but only getting cryptic information. To add to the nonsense they are being harassed by the local sheriff who is also short on information and long on judgment and, while people "don't like him" he is still holds an elected position... The plot was the only thing that kept me engaged for an hour and a half hoping it would all come together but when the end came I found myself wanting to know who the writers were to make sure I never endure another one of their creations.

What was the movie all about? Was it horror or was it science fiction? Well it is neither one or the other. It is in a whole genre of its own. Genre of never knowing what the movie is actually about. You will never know and never find out. The worst movie I've watched in a while! No resolution ever or explanation. Awful movie. There was always a sense of hope that we would find out what was going on on, this kept us watching to the end. But no luck! I'll never get that wasted time back! My advice is to not waste your time watching this movie and if you've already seen it then my commiserations!