Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Fields

 (2011) ***1/2

This thriller is based on true events that happened in 1973. Young Steven is left in the care of his grandparents while his parents try to sort out their marital differences. Grandparents Hiney (Bev Appleton) and Gladys (Cloris Leachman) live on a desolate farm surrounded by a vast cornfield. Gladys cannot stress strongly enough to Steven how important it is that stay out of the cornfields. Steven being a kid doesn’t listen. He wanders in but gets freaked out when he finds a dead girl, no one believes him though and they convince him it was just his mind playing tricks. However, the threat proves to be all too real when the family begins getting terrorized by stealthy assailants who have the family trapped in their home.

 Fuck Phyllis, I'm old now and full of piss and vinegar.

 This is a slow burner, the real stars here are Cloris Leachman and Bev Appleton who steal the entire film. Their performances are top shelf and purely entertaining. Cloris is brilliant and the way she and Bev play off each other is so realistic and casual, you’d swear this was a genuine couple who have been together for a lifetime. Although there are some truly spine tingling moments in the film, as a thriller it has a pretty moderate payoff. Still it is worth every bit of time invested into it if just for the sheer pleasure of appreciating Cloris Leachman’s talent. The Fields gets a big thumbs up from me.

Loved this creepy old park Steven stumbles upon.

6 comments:

Crystal Math said...

The photo of the creepy park is neat! I don't think I'll get to this one this year but I'll add it in my queue for next year.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Heh - grandma "Hiney".

Sounds decent but I'm still desperately struggling to keep up with your awesome recommendations from the past couple of years!

Catfreeek said...

There's always next year Johnny.

DKC said...

Sounds great! I love Cloris Leachman.

JPX said...

I love Leachman as well and this sounds like fun!

Octopunk said...

The first time they released Schoolhouse Rock on video there were these completely unnecessary bumper intros with Cloris Leachman dancing around. Really awful stuff.

As a result I often have to remind myself that she's got talent.

Yay for this flick. I'd like to say I'd never go into an abandoned amusement park but fuck yeah I would.

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