Fertile Ground
Fertile Ground
R | 28 January 2011 (USA)
Fertile Ground Trailers

Emily and Nate Weaver leave the city for the rural comfort of Nate’s ancestral home in the country. Once there, Emily is plagued by horrifying visions and haunted by the ghosts inhabiting their isolated new home. When Nate’s behavior undergoes a strange and fearful metamorphosis, Emily fears she might be the latest target in a murderous tradition.

Reviews
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
etsenberg Don't trust those low ratings. The movie is really good. Yes, it doesn't contain anything we didn't see before in haunted house stories. But well, the same can be said about classical movies of any genre. If you like the genre as much as I do, you'll probably like this movie. If you are looking for something very original, check art house, not horror.There is still an unresolved question in the end, if there really was something supernatural in the house or the woman just gone mad because of her stresses, coincidences and imagination. And yes, we've seen such open endings before, too. But again, I see nothing wrong in it. Just yesterday I've watched another movie with a similar plot - "Deadline", but "Fertile Ground" is better, in my opinion.
Nemesis42 The Director has a good eye for shot composition, and the pace of the film was good. Moved along well. Main setback was the lack of character development for the male lead. He was generally unconvincing up against the solid performance by the female lead Leisha Hailey.As a result of his lack of authenticity, the transition he goes through into the more evil version of himself felt forced, unnatural and unjustified. A symptom of bad casting, writing, editing (essential parts of his development could have ended up on the cutting room floor) or bad acting.The sound design was good but the dialogue had issues. Better sound recordist needed, or quieter locations, or a better dialogue edit, or a bunch of ADR sessions would have helped here. Not sure which dept was at fault. Ahh yes, you guys heard of this thing called "Denoise"" RX4 would have helped clean up your noisy recordings.Overall it was compelling, only for the strong female lead. All other casting in the film was mediocre.I loved the drift away section in the party scene. Total Magic !! Spend more time looking for the right actors and put some money into hiring a more seasoned casting department. Even on a low budget, if you put the time in, more ideal actors will emerge.
flemur13013 I "had to" watch it because my girlfriend's nephew was in it.The nephew did all right in his small part.The two main characters were not very likable, so it was difficult to "care" about what happened to them.The bad background music was louder than the dialog in some places; the sound was also echo-y and sometimes hard to understand.After moving - away from the woman's friends so she can get over her depression, which doesn't make any sense - they find an adult human skull in the clogged drain of their new house, which also doesn't make any sense because the pipe was too small.Some medium-sized furry animals I couldn't identify - big squirrels? - made a couple of appearances for no apparent reason.I guess it was supposed to be about ghosts, but it seemed more like the woman was just getting nutty. After imagining some other women wandering around in a bloody dress, she ends up killing hubby and best friend, then ends up in a padded cell after or while having a baby.Altogether not worth watching unless you're trying to sleep.
moruten13 To write a review about this film is hard, when you don't want to sound like you hated it, when you thought it was okay... It is not scary, so horror or thriller is overreacting, but if your girlfriend can't take much gore or is easily scared, this film might be the perfect one, before you start with something like the ring or saw.The story has potential, it is a common horror story plot line, with a couple moving to the countryside, but with a bit more background than most of those plot lines. Here I at first got some hope, that it won't be as boring as most films with these plot lines are... But... Yeah, as mentioned, disappointed viewer.When Emily starts to see things, you kinda get a bit creeped and wonder what is the reason, but it soon is boring. Nothing happens, besides her seeing ghost, who do nothing but being their. Even the breathing sound in paranormal activity is scarier than this, after it happened twice. Wasted potential A.Since she found this kinda box, the story gets interesting about the people who lived there before and later on, they find a skeleton in their yard.Nate turns kinda like Jack Nicholson in the Shining and you have this unseen, only mentioned panting on which he is working and you get hinted to many times. But later on, when it's revealed you get, yet again, disappointed... Wasted potential B.Emily gets pregnant again and stops taking her pills, now *hit is getting serious... You at least hope so. But, no, the ghost still appear, do nothing and then are gone. Nate works on his painting and behaves still weird.The way in which the story is told, won't help to let you fell like it's needlessly stretched. It's repetitive and leaves a feeling of "buying time" so the film won't end after 30mins (which would have improved it to at least 6.5 starts in my opinion...).At their housewarming party Emily gets again one of those "psychomoments" and the first really mysterious thing happens. A friends dies, which is something you think would have a deeper impact on the story but isn't mentioned to much. When you recycle those boring ghost presence, make it so you think at least they'll do something. Wasted potential C.Now, finally, the end is in sight. But again, you get not a good, tight packed end which is thrilling or scary. You get the long, boring, every-move is predictable ending, which is a classical horror film ending. In the ending I see wasted potential D.The final scenes of the film are not needed if you didn't fall asleep during the final, but just in case you did, it will kinda explain it to you.Making a good horror film is hard, yes. Especially with ghost, since the genre is overloaded. But when you got such a good idea, decent actors and wasted potential don't make a film needlessly longer so you can get it to be a long-running film. This film would have been a real gem as short film, it saddens to see, how it was stretched and many things clearly made to make it easy to understand, which kind of lead to a really "see-through" storyline. In the end a film you can see with someone who is easy scared and can't take to much gore. When you see it as a couple maybe a bit more scaring than as single.