Dark Fields

This movie had a well written script and outstanding special effects plus the cinematography was excellent. It also had several well known actors and they did an outstanding job along with the rest of the cast. Also on the DVD I watched there was an outstanding commentary track by the director along with animated storyboards,a deleted scene and behind the scenes footage which all worth watching.

So said this character in this cheese-ball from hell.

'Yes, my dear,' MUCH worse - if you sit and waste ANY time watching this poorly acted. Ridiculously plotted nightmare.

There's no words to describe how dreadful this is.

In a nutshell: Town has poor (pun?) rain.

So, they sacrifice kids. Evil spirit, then more rain probs, then the current residents of this rain-challenged place has the rain - and evil - probs themselves.

One simple idea that's NEVER thought of: MOVE!!!

This is one move where the sound-cues - so important, but, so rarely noticed in most films - are on prominent display - and I'm not saying that in a kind way.

The only way you 'sense' bad things, are from the 'ominous' music: creepy tinkling on a piano, or 'jug-bottle whistling sounds - all the cliché's are on PROMINENT display in this muck.

Not ONE of the people in this (other than Keith Carradine) , has any sort of a career - before they made this, and, I'd seriously doubt, if they ever would.

It's like the director went and got...friends-of-friends-of-friends together, and said; 'hey! You ever thought about being in a movie?'

A typical scene of 'ominous approaching bad;' the girl, who only moments earlier was sweet, fun, wearing white, shows up all in black - eye makeup, et al. Then, her mobile rings. Tight close-up of mobile, while 'ominous chord' plays.

I'm only guessing here, but, I think I found the TRUE reason Mr. Carradine passed away - this was coming out.

Dear Lord!! HOW have people reviewed and rated this so well?! Seriously, unless you want to slip into a mindcoma, do not touch this with a barge pole...

It's another low budget horror that could have done so well. A good idea in principle (a bawdy, ragged-toothed Native American curses some farmy people about something to do with rain) but fails on all levels. It's one of those horrors where the cast plod around a small set over and over again while nothing makes much sense. The acting is DIRE, in fact the plucky young lad from the bygone era was the only promising talent and he's in it all for 5 minutes. The rest of the cast look like they're practising their lines off camera in low effort mode and absolutely no- one adds anything to the silly storyline.

I cannot actually remember more of this because as well as losing the will to live soon in, my vital functions slowed down to a crawl making memory impossible. All I can recall is that there was a lot of wood panelling, a hat that kept reappearing and some black lines on everyone's skin. Oh and a bit of rain. Those were the highlights.

AVOID.

Set across three generations of inhabitants of the small town of Perseverance, comes a story not done justice by the flimsy direction and wooden acting. This eerie and suspenseful tale about a village haunted and cursed by wickedness contaminating their rain, ends up ringing hollow despite some good cast choices. Rain the purifier becomes the touch of death. The whole event is initiated in the late 1900s, as the village, led by Clive Jonis (played by the ever-charismatic genre old-timer David Carradine) enters into a pact with a devilish shaman. This in turns has bloody repercussions many years in the future as human sacrifices are necessitated by the need for rain.

Inside the story lurks some great potential with a creepy top-hat taking centre stage, while Tiren Jhames as the ominous Mr Saul brings the beast delivering a superb character. However, most screen times is wasted on some truly appalling child acting, who one-by-one spiral the movie into oblivion, leaving just singular moments and short-lived spine-crawling elements. Surprisingly disjointed it also features superior technical qualities depending on specific sub-stories, with acting, lighting and overall feel superior during the turn of the century story thread.

The story also becomes undone by the basic premise, which suggests that longing for life would corrupt the soul to such an extent, that mothers and fathers would willing dispose of their own kin. The concept itself seems so far-flung, thus only underlining the low production qualities, probably forced by budget limitations.

There is a very good Horror/Supernatural Movie in here somewhere. It has excellent Cinematography, some eerie Make-Up effects, and a feel of the unreal. But in its ambitious attempt to tell a Story spanning three Generations of a cursed Community, something got submerged.

It is unnecessarily muddled and confusing and with some attentive Editing and a different structure, this one could have been a real Sleeper. Presented here, it is laborious, much too long, and the pacing is just too slow.

It is worth a watch for Fans of Horror and low budget experiments. There is some real Talent at work here behind the Camera, but its the Composition and flow that defeats this good try. This is some heavy going and is intriguing, but could be more homogenized.