Title: Fertile Ground
Directed by: Adam Gierasch
Starring: Gale Harold, Leisha Hailey and Chelcie Ross
Running Time: 95 minutes, Rated R
After Emily Weaver goes through a gruesome miscarriage, she and her husband Nate decide to move to a rural town where his family’s ancestral home is located. As they are settling in, Emily begins to have horrifying visions and ghostly encounters.
Part of the DVD extras has the story-boarding, which I thought was brilliant to show the viewer how they plotted out their beautifully filmed cinematography. It really was great for a modest budget horror film. The commentary by director Adam Gierasch, writer Jace Anderson and lead actress Leisha Hailey was a tad dry, however they sounded like they had a lot of fun making the film. Director Gierasch points out his ode to Hitchcock by making an appearance and comically rips on himself.
The story itself reminded me of the mid-90’s controversial live-action PC game Phantasmagoria, where a young couple moves into an old historically significant house. The wife sees visions of the past murdered residents, and the husband becomes influenced by the evil force behind it all; however in Fertile Ground, it has the twist you were halfway expecting, but wasn’t sure it was actually going to go the route where it ended up.
Actress Leisha Hailey was quite good as the tormented Emily; however I wasn’t as impressed with the rest of the cast. Not a lot of blood, the sound mixing and score were done very well in order to keep you on edge. This is the type of film you watch on a lazy afternoon and you want to watch something different with plenty of suspense; it’s not a spectacular movie, but I didn’t have that feeling like my time was wasted for taking the time to watch it.
Total Rating: C
Reviewed by JM Willis
