Fertile Ground

Horrorphile

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Fertile Ground

November 10th 2011 02:01

Emily (Leisha Hailey) and Nate (Gale Harold) Weaver have a nice city apartment, good friends, and a bun in the oven, but tragedy strikes and Emily is left internally scarred and psychologically fragile. They decide to start again and leave the city for the rural comfort of Nate's ancestral home in the country. They may be isolated, but Nate can work in freedom on his paintings in the shed and Emily can further heal. But Emily is plagued by horrifying visions and haunted by the ancestral ghosts inhabiting the two-storey house. Nate is no longer himself, and despite a miraculous second pregnancy it seems Nate is none too happy about the prospect of a baby.

Leisha Hailey as Emily

Director Adam Gierasch and his partner and co-screenwriter Jace Anderson have a checkered career; both were hired by Dario Argento to pen the screenplay for Mother of Tears (2007), and what a disaster that was! They had both written several schlock B-movies prior and following the Argento misfire Gierasch took the director’s chair for the surprisingly effective Fulci-esque Autopsy (2008). They co-wrote, and he directed, the remake of Night of the Demons (2010), which could/should have been great, but they fumbled and dropped the ball. Now they return with an entry for After Dark Originals re-branding, and it’s very disappointing to see they’ve failed to maintain the intensity or originality they both showed with Autopsy.

Gale Harold as Nate

Fertile Ground (2011, pronounced “fur-til” if you’re a yank) is a ghost tale told in the pedestrian gate of a TV movie. It’s like an episode of The Twilight Zone, only not as interesting. The production values are okay, the acting is uneven (completely unconvincing as an artist is Gale Harold), but at least Leisha Hailey holds the picture up from completely falling on its arse, you genuinely feel for your predicament, especially considering what an arsehole her husband is and becomes even more so.

No use crying over spilled blood

The movie has some beautiful rural sunsets, nice work there Mr. D.O.P., but where the hell is the horror?! The whole original concept behind After Dark’s Horrorfest was that these were independent horror movies that were pushing the boundaries giving horror fans something more than the PG-13 Twilight twaddle saturating the horror market. Just as perplexing is the R18: contains high impact horror violence rating slapped on the Australian DVD release. There’s a hysterical stabbing at movie’s end, but I’ve seen worse in an MA rated movie. I just don’t understand the criteria the NSW censor’s office work with. It leaves me confounded.

Starting over ... Moving in

The score doesn’t help matters either; I just can’t stand composers (and the director is just as much to blame) who fill almost every scene with rising and falling violins, twinkling piano, a surge here, a sigh there. It insults the intelligence of horrorphiles. We do not need, nor want, to be told how to feel every moment of the movie. And those dreadful chapter headings; “Starting Over”, “Moving In”, “New Life”, “Old Secrets”, “Strange Happenings” … Sweet Jesus, it’s like watching daytime soap, but at nighttime. Great DVD cover art though.

Bad memories = bad dreams

Fertile Ground Gale Harold and Leisha Hailey

Nothing like a jig on the awning to clear the cobwebs

I tried to prepare for the new batch of After Dark movies, as I’ve experienced such a mixed bag of tricks. I’ve seen fifteen of the forty odd movies that have been released since the first Horrorfest in 2006. Three were excellent; The Abandoned (2006), The Broken (2007), and Frontier(s) (2007), and four were good; Borderland (2007), Dying Breed (2008), Autopsy (2008), and Lake Mungo (2009). I’ve read very good things about Dread (2010), but have yet to view that. Can’t say I’m impressed with the four movies I’ve seen of the After Dark Originals. Perhaps Re-Kill (2012) will pick up the ball.

Here’s the trailer:

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