Charges of unoriginality and predictability are often leveled against your average B-grade horror pap, but rarely have I seen a film so deserving of these criticisms.
Without even a touch of hyperbole, almost every plot turn could easily be predicted beforehand. Even the smallest things. The tree planted in the backyard, where she ends up at the end, Nate's paintings, the fates of Nate and her friend, even the bathroom scene near the beginning of the film - all utterly predictable. Certain events that occur are so sign-posted that even a horror film novice will see something coming later on. A good example is the intercom. The scene where it is introduced is such an obvious set up for what the director/writers must have thought was a cool creepy bit later on. The problem is, when it comes, it just isn't cool or creepy. We'd known it was coming all along and it just ends up being lame. The most glaring example is probably the box of old photos and stuff they find belonging to the early ancestors who had lived in the house. "He looks just like you", she says to Nate. Hmm, I wonder where this is going?! Seriously, it's all so predictable I even found myself mouthing dialog before the characters did on a couple of occasions. I swear, if you simply told the title - "Fertile Ground" - to a horror film buff who hadn't seen it they'd soon be piecing together something very close to the plot after not very long.
Positives? Well, I found the whole exercise of predicting all the goings-on to be entertaining in itself (hence the quite generous 4 stars). It might make a good drinking game: chug a beer every time your prediction comes true. You'd be smashed 40 minutes in! Genuine positives? The actors do OK. The female lead kind of looks like the attractive "Sex in the City" character. (Not horse-face, not the old one, not the ginger one - the other one.) Settings, camera work, lighting...Geez! What horror fan wants to pick out 'lighting' as one of a film's few merits?!
So, overall, not many positives here. Certainly not for a seasoned horror fan. The whole thing is far too cliché-ridden, far too predictable and unoriginal. The odd jump scare and syth-stab soundtrack tricks and the few glimpses of ghostly former tenants are not enough to produce genuine scares. Avoid "Fertile Ground".
Without even a touch of hyperbole, almost every plot turn could easily be predicted beforehand. Even the smallest things. The tree planted in the backyard, where she ends up at the end, Nate's paintings, the fates of Nate and her friend, even the bathroom scene near the beginning of the film - all utterly predictable. Certain events that occur are so sign-posted that even a horror film novice will see something coming later on. A good example is the intercom. The scene where it is introduced is such an obvious set up for what the director/writers must have thought was a cool creepy bit later on. The problem is, when it comes, it just isn't cool or creepy. We'd known it was coming all along and it just ends up being lame. The most glaring example is probably the box of old photos and stuff they find belonging to the early ancestors who had lived in the house. "He looks just like you", she says to Nate. Hmm, I wonder where this is going?! Seriously, it's all so predictable I even found myself mouthing dialog before the characters did on a couple of occasions. I swear, if you simply told the title - "Fertile Ground" - to a horror film buff who hadn't seen it they'd soon be piecing together something very close to the plot after not very long.
Positives? Well, I found the whole exercise of predicting all the goings-on to be entertaining in itself (hence the quite generous 4 stars). It might make a good drinking game: chug a beer every time your prediction comes true. You'd be smashed 40 minutes in! Genuine positives? The actors do OK. The female lead kind of looks like the attractive "Sex in the City" character. (Not horse-face, not the old one, not the ginger one - the other one.) Settings, camera work, lighting...Geez! What horror fan wants to pick out 'lighting' as one of a film's few merits?!
So, overall, not many positives here. Certainly not for a seasoned horror fan. The whole thing is far too cliché-ridden, far too predictable and unoriginal. The odd jump scare and syth-stab soundtrack tricks and the few glimpses of ghostly former tenants are not enough to produce genuine scares. Avoid "Fertile Ground".