The Empty Acre

five minutes after watching this i logged on to IMDb to warn all of you out there not to bother with this movie... genre:horror? it had moments of mild suspense and throughout the whole movie i was thinking to myself "somethings gotta happen soon" it did not...when the movie ended i felt so embarrassed for the writer/director i've never been the biggest fan of patrick rea this guy just does not know how to make movies and after watching this sorry excuse of a horror flick i've gone from not been the biggest fan to will not watch another of his works..

i was taken in by the plot summary please don't make the same mistake.

i gave this movie a 2 for the actors..they were not bad and it wasn't there fault they got such bad direction...

When watching no budget, or extremely low budget, genre films one should expect to see a film that's rough around the edges, that is severely limited in what it can accomplish visually, and that must rely on actors who are not as experienced or as talented as they are simply enthusiastic and willing. One must overlook these flaws - to some degree - and instead focus on what the filmmakers attempt DESPITE the limitations. Most filmmakers seemingly never even try, or don't care, or perhaps just lack the talent to achieve anything other than "getting it done". The Empty Acre falls squarely in that rare category of a film that struggles to be a serious contender. There is thought and intent and a certain level of creativity behind the choices and the decisions the writer/director made (I absolutely loved the use of simple elongated shadow effects) and I have to applaud those while at the same time acknowledging that the film stumbles and fails on many levels regardless. If you are willing to cut it some slack and give it a chance the film rewards with an interesting premise, some effective visuals, and actors who are valiantly giving their best. Sadly the premise is never developed effectively. The screenplay is structured in such a fashion that huge parts of it seem to be missing (like the entire introduction to the "empty acre"). Characters don't always communicate like believable human beings in the situations they find themselves in. Even in scenes that are meant to establish the more mundane or unexceptional nature of the characters lives, they should still be interesting and insightful; unfortunately it feels like once the writer knew he wanted such a scene (which is brave enough in a genre film) he had no idea how to add the interest or insight. The scene just exists. Too much of the film just "sits there" in the execution. And there is an over reliance on editing tricks which might have been necessitated by problems during shooting or with the quality of finished scenes, but ultimately becomes simply distracting and pushes the audience away from the film instead of bringing them in to it. Yes, it can be wonderful all the tools available to the digital editor, but that doesn't mean you have to use them all at the same time. And despite all the editing, editing, editing going on the films pace is poor from the outset and endlessly cutting to overused footage of cracked earth doesn't help in the least. Once or twice is eerie but by the three thousandth time it's simply boring and feels like visual padding. Although it never fulfilled on it's promise, and on several occasions was a struggle to get through, I still think it's worthwhile watching the product of filmmakers who are at least trying to create something original regardless of their limitations. With a better developed script (and a less "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" approach to editing) I wouldn't mind seeing what the filmmaker could accomplish in the future.

The American dream backfires in grand style in this poetic, often fascinating tale of tragedy. The suffocating aura of indescribable, almost irrational dread in this movie comes much closer to the flavor of H. P. Lovecraft's darkest writings than any of the movies actually adapted from that author's work. A newly married couple with a 6-month-old son buys an isolated Kansas farm which contains a mysteriously barren acre of flat, lifeless land. Late at night, a shapeless black shadowy mass emerges from the ground and swallows up nearby residents and passersby. The victims' screams and moans can occasionally be heard coming from underground, but no physical trace of them can be found. Some people from the nearby town are contaminated by the unknown force and released, doomed to live out the rest of their lives as aged, hopeless husks of their former selves in constant danger of becoming as dehydrated as the lifeless patch of land itself. When the newlyweds' infant son disappears one night, their lives begin a downward spiral nothing can reverse. While the bulk of the story focuses its attention on the crumbling marriage of the protagonists and the husband's degeneration into an insufferably bad-tempered, controlling (and possibly two-timing) creep, the nameless evil works as a metaphor for their ruined lives as it continues to literally suck the life out of everyone and evrything in its reach. The unexplained underground monster functions rather disturbngly as a comment (warning?) on the ability of smalltown life (and especially farm life) to destroy the hopes and dreams of ordinary people who can be made through trying circumstances to give up on their expectations of perfect little lives and eventually find themselves resigned to emptily plugging along in their own personal, inescapable ruts, deprived of their youth and left with thirsts that can never be sated. Horror fans accustomed to special effects-driven mayhem may be bored by the movie's relative lack of violent incident, but this unnerving look into the depths of sadness and loss is more shuddery and challenging than any half-dozen of Hollywood's top horrors. Which is not to say, of course, that it's a perfect film. The pace honestly does flag from time to time, there are way too many repeated flash cuts of spooky imagery, the acting is inconsistent and the characters don't always behave with great intelligence. Tighter editing would have helped a lot. And then there's the lack of any rational explanation for the evil that haunts the field, which will be seen as frustrating to those who prefer straightforward storytelling over nightmare metaphor. But in the case of a psychological tale like this that wants to get into your head rather than simply shock you, any literal explanation for the story's malignant supernatural force seems almost superfluous. It might only have served to distract viewer attention away from the emotional and very personal nature of the horror at hand. This eerie tale may not make much sense on a literal level but as a gloomy exploration of misguided emotions and wasted lives it's dead-on, concluding on a devastating note that chillingly feels like the only way this scenario could possibly have played out. The director was only 27.

Those of the "Instant Gratification" era of horror films will no doubt complain about this film's pace and lack of gratuitous effects and body count. The fact is, "The Empty Acre" is a good a example of how independent horror films should be done.

If you avoid the indie racks because you are tired of annoying teens or twenty somethings getting killed by some baddie whose back-story could have come off the back of a Count Chocula box, "The Empty Acre" is the movie for you.

Set in the decaying remnants of the rural American dream, "The Empty Acre" is the tale of a young couple struggling with the disappearance of their six-month-old baby. As the couple's weak relationship falls apart, a larger story plays out in the background. At night, a shapeless dark mass seethes from a sun baked barren acre on their farm and seemingly devours anything in its path, leaving no sign that it was ever there.

The film is loaded with enigmatic characters and visual clues as to what is happening, and ends with a well executed ending that resonates with just enough left over questions to validate the writer/director's faith in an intellectual audience.

There seems to be a sub-text concerning the death of the American dream, but I would hardly call the film an allegory. Riveting, well acted, and technically astute, "The Empty Acre" is a fantastic little indie that thinking horror fans should love.

You have to give these guys a break, if you want big budget horror watch one of the million dollar Hollywood movies, these are young guys trying to make it in one of the toughest industries. As a filmmaker myself i can tell you this is well edited, the acting is pretty good, he created good depth of field using a pro-sumer camera and he knew that keeping the angles tight is important when using a camera like the DVX100 as the resolution on these small cameras tends to break up when put to the big screen. I can tell you he does know how to make movies.All famous filmmakers have humble beginnings.The only thing i would say all things considered is that it is a bit too long. If you are an aspiring filmmaker i recommend watching this.