The Fields

What appears to be the dichotomy between the positive and negative reviews with regards to "The Fields" is that you have those looking for "scare the crap out of me!" horror and those that see this film is truly full of horror elements. It is not dull, boring, nor uneventful. In fact there are many different things going on here in this period piece that is very well executed and is highly worth viewing, in my (and many others') opinion. We know that film reviews are subjective: not everyone is going to like the same thing, this goes without saying. The Fields really covers so much ground and truly disturbing yet also interesting and "good" moments that it would be very unfortunate that one would not watch it based on some poor reviews. Be wary of those telling you not to waste your time. I almost heeded their words and would have missed out on this complex and realistic gem.

I usually don't write reviews to "counter" the writings of other critics, but I really feel that this movie deserves a better look than some people are giving it.

These days, people have a tendency to look up a movie and do a little reading about it before they watch it. This has pros and cons, the most significant con being that they see the words "drama" or "horror" and from that point on expect nothing but a drama or a horror. When they watch the movie and find that it does not conform itself to the labels, they complain.

Yes, this movie takes time to move, and yes you are not really sure where it's going, but boy oh boy does it ever make good at the end! The director and writers made the very excellent decision to bring in the terror at the last part of the film. This is the way it should be. THIS is how terror should be done. It's like an earthquake, hitting you when you least expect it, in a way you couldn't prepare for, knocking you off your feet. It doesn't need to make sense or "tie in" to anything else.

The first stretch of this film seems to be designed to put you off your guard, then hit you at the end. It works. It's effective. It gave me the chills. I would recommend watching it.

The Fields is one of those independents that engages and almost enamors you at the beginning. You suffer through Tara Reid giving a performance about as impressive as one of the corn stalks in the titular fields because you know Cloris Leachman is going to appear shortly and make it all better. And she does, for a while. Her brash, obnoxious, yet troubled and anxious grandmother character has depth and subtlety that's well worth seeing.

But as time goes by you start to get the uneasy feeling that the writer had no real sense of where they were taking the story. By the end of the first hour you're pretty certain that the film is going to continue turning in aimless circles and then just fizzle out... but by then you figure you've already invested an hour, you might as well see it through to the end just to see if you were right...

Half an hour later you look at the fizzled out remnants and say to yourself "yep, I was right".

It's easy to see what The Fields was aiming for - a slow burn, southern Gothic drama with horror undertones - and most of the components are solid. The direction and cinematography is nice, the acting (Reid excepted) is outstanding (even from the kid), and the score is fittingly creepy. However, as with all things the strength of the whole is dependent on the weakest link and in this case the weak link is the screenplay, and it pulls the rest of an otherwise good movie down into oblivion with its meandering trajectory.

When I bought UK DVD of 'The Fields' I had some expectations, not much but some(plus 3d cover is great I have to give them that!). It's being promoted as a horror movie although some websites claim It's more of a psychological trailer. Well It's not much of a thriller in my book and certainly there is no horror at all. I should know better that Cloris Leachman would not participate in a horror movie about haunted cornfield but hey I gave it a try. 'The Fields' turned out to be one of the most boring movies ever made. And I have seen a lot of boring movies where nothing happens but this flick beats it all. Acting is obviously solid with Miss Leachman as Grandma and Tara Reid as mother(but she only appears in the beginning and ending of the movie). There is no thrills, suspense, gore or anything like that. The only thing they do in the whole movie is talk. Talk, talk, talk, sometimes they shout and that's it. I also have to say that the kid playing the lead is extremely annoying. I don't see any reason to give it more than 1. It's obviously bigger budget movie with good technical aspects(although editing is crappy many times) in it but It doesn't matter when the movie is so boring, characters one dimensional and nothing, absolutely NOTHING happens during the whole movie. Watch it on your own risk if you are looking for a long nap, because the only thing this movie actually delivers is sleep.

If you expect this to be a movie filled with jump scares and the likes you are expecting the wrong things from this movie. This movie plays with fears and anxieties of a little kid. And even Tara Reid cannot really affect the movie (especially because thankfully she is not in it the whole time). The star of the movie is the kid and he does a really good job.

If I had read the based on actual events I might have not looked upon the movie the way I did. But even so, if you take it as it is, you might be able to enjoy this vision of fear. Just don't go in expecting this to be your typical run of the mill horror movie. It's still predictable, but a decent movie after all