User reviews

A long and winding road leading nowhere, The Fields is a mish-mash of disconnected set pieces with no real plot. While the desaturated cinematography and moody design set a general tone of gloom, and much of the acting is solid, The Fields focuses on fragmented back story, rather than a beginning, a middle, and an end. There's no connection between Steven's parents' domestic disputes and Steven's meanderings around the farm. So why did the producers even follow that storyline? Of course, one could ask the same question about any aspect of this "mystery," and ultimately, about The Fields itself. 5 points for competence, but -2 for making me waste my time.

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.

How anyone rated this a 10 is beyond my belief. There was no storyline. I tried very hard to fall in love with the characters but it never happened. Had no idea what was happening half the time and the corn field kept dying or being green? What? The boy seemed to just randomly appear places. Very bad. No suspense. Not scary. Disappointing beyond Belief. Made an account just to yell about this bad movie because i was so misled. The movie was about 40 minutes of simply trying to build up characters that i ceased to fall in love with. Its was very unfortunate because after seeing quite a few good ratings i had hoped for a better outcome. Made my family wait and watch to see an uneventful bad ending. A waste of my day.

Well, we all have our own unique tastes in films. Some have rated this as a 10. Go figure. I'm struggling to figure out why I'd give it a 1. This is absolute, utter nonsense from beginning to end. It isn't frightening even for a moment. It's bizarre and bewildering. I struggled to stay awake for much of its run - and I watched it in the middle of the day. It never really seemed to be going anywhere in particular that I could figure out. It's filled with a cast of characters who are distasteful, unlikeable - just plain not nice. I suppose you could say that it captures the reality of a child's thought process - young Steven, told repeatedly not to go into the cornfield of course goes into the cornfield several times. But I have to confess that I never quite understood what was going on. What, actually, was in the cornfield that had Steven so scared? I have no idea. All I can say is that this is one of those movies that make you assume that the words "Based On True Events" have to be taken with a grain of salt about the size of Montana. (1/10)

A tense and atmospheric psychological thriller that gets it right- the right script, cast, crew, music, feel, tone and look. The 3 main cast members, Josh Ormond, Bev Appleton, and Cloris Leachman are pitch perfect, playing characters so realistically that you can follow the story without interruption; so important. A great cast of supporting characters creates a true, real life, small town feel for this truly disturbing story.

Keep an eye out for Josh Ormond; I think we will be seeing a lot from this young man. Such a huge part for such a young man and he managed it beautifully! Be sure to see this film. If you miss it, you'll regret it!

This movie wasted over an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. When I'm laying on my death bed, I will think back to all the things I could have done with that time. Yes, it's that bad. I got sucked in and really thought it was going to turn out to be a decent movie. A little less than half way in, I figured out that I had been duped. I wanted to write a review to help others avoid the same mistake, therefore I felt obligated to watch it all so my review would be honest.

this is not one of the worst scary movie out there, this is the worst scary movie out there. the acting is amateurish, the plot was super slow, the movie is super, super slow, there isn't much of any scary moment in the movie at all, but the story was interesting, that's what got me to watch this movie and some of its recent reviews. Another point, don't listen to these reviews.... it seemed that they and I are watching two different movies. Either that or they are somewhat related to the production of this movie... so they give themselves good marks to attack viewers. or they are idiots whose not reviewing the movie justly.

The movie started very slow....and I kept watching and waiting and hoping it will pick up... but it was a disappointing waste of my 1 and a half hours of my life. The movie story line I thought was a really good set up for a good ghost story was killed by the director, who lack movie making experience; did not know when and how to put or set up scary scene at all.... at some part, I thought here it comes, and it was a wash.... it was a terrible movie... not recommended at all...

I don't know that I'd call it a horror movie per se, but it still creeped me out in ways I didn't expect. The acting was spot on, with totally believable characters (Cloris Leachman in particular was a stand out) and something about the rural farmhouse setting, the abandoned cornfield that is to be avoided at all costs, the town that is little more than a ghost town complete with Manson Family-esque squatters living in buses and abandoned buildings, all combined to give the movie an unnerving feel of isolation. Ordinary everyday scenes become twisted without you even being aware why you have the feeling that things were somehow "off." If you're looking for a classic horror movie, you might be somewhat bored during parts of this movie, but for a psychological movie that screws with your mind, it was superb, and the fact that it was based on a true story adds to the creepy vibe. Give it a chance; I recommend it 100%.

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.

A movie like no other....Something mundane happens to somebody platitudinous. It goes on for a bit, then it stops. You'll yawn. You'll blink. You'll wonder what Redbox did with your $1.28. The complete and total absence of action is over shadowed only by the loosely grouped events that struggle to make up a plot. The best thing that can be said for this movie is that the Director and Producers of "The English Patient" rejoiced and threw a party when it was learned their movie was no longer the single most boring piece of cinematic doldrums ever conceived. Perhaps the best review of this movie came from Leo Tolstoy, who upon viewing it said, "My God, does this EVER end?"

Weak plot, useless scenes, and some of the most repulsive closeups in film - Cloris Leachman singing & farting, smoking cigarettes, and talking with her mouth full, grandpa pulling his dentures out & licking them, rancid peanut butter on a stale cracker, fresh cow flop, and filthy toilets. Then there's the inbred-looking, mentally impaired in-laws (one with a hideous deformity}, a crazed halfwit farm hand, and VW bus full of dirty hippies. Most of the people in this film look like they haven't bathed or showered for months. You can almost smell them.

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

This is not a horror movie,It's drama from the beginning to the end,I must say that I quiet enjoyed the first hour of it, my imagination was exploding with scary and crazy thoughts but i don't what happens at the end of it exactly.. when the moment comes for this piece to explode with emotion and scary people nothing of that happens No it gets boring and weird it gets like those old horror movies that nobody wants to watch anymore because it's well "BORING" IT'S it's it's just "WEIRD"! I must give the kid some compliments because he deserves it...

It's just a drama, If you want to watch it anyway please do me a favor "Just watch the half of it you will enjoy it" Thank you

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.

Piece of crap, I wouldn't recommend to anyone. If I had bought this on dvd I'd burn it.