Love this film. I love it the way I love THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (Frisch/Wise, 1942.) I shouldn't gush, but this film took me completely by surprise. I watched it on Hulu+ yesterday, April 24, 2015, for the first time; and, then, with my husband, watching, again, today. Today, it resonated even more anticipating what I knew about the plot, characters, and climax. Today, I was able to enjoy details I missed of which there were many.
The thing is: I knew, when I watched THE FIELDS for the first time, that it's a special film. It's not easily categorized. When Gladys says, "It's not the dead you have to be afraid, it's the living," or something to that effect, she basically gives the story away. But this film has been poorly described and promoted. Truly, here is what the Hulu+ summary says of the film: "Steven is sent to live in the countryside with his grandparents while his parents work through their troubles. Though his grandparents are happy to host him, they warn Steven not to enter the cornfields next to their house. When he does an EVIL awakens." That's garbage. No "EVIL awakens." This is the trouble with this film, particularly here at IMDb where I can only conjecture that the low-rating for this film is due to the fact that viewers approach this film with expectations that, most definitely, are not fulfilled. There are no zombies, vampires, devil children, or alien grays here. There's something worse. There's the living; and, beyond even that, there is the notion that not all "in-breds" are chainsaw-wielding former-meat butchers turned cannibal murderers.
Having been almost the exact age of Steven (Joshua Ormand) in 1973 and remembering the aftermath of the Manson murders as seen through the evening news...staying up after 11:00 pm with my parents and watching the Detroit-area television premier of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, perhaps in 1973...watching CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1963) on Saturday afternoon horror film programs...having relatives like Gladys--chain-smoking, cuss-like-a-sailor, kind and gentle and crazy funny--and,in retrospect, remembering how the "Summer of Love" turned sour, how there were Manson admirers and "hippies" really freaking out and becoming something of terrorists...suffice it to say, I "get" the horror of this film.
Then there are the references to folklore--the cornfield, the raven leading Steven into it for the first time, the stick hurled out from the corn like an elf-shot. There are the references to classic films and television with clips of DRAGNET and Webb mentioning a tragedy involving a grandmother and her grandson; CARNIVAL OF SOULS with Candace Hilligoss's Mary Henry coming upon "Saltair" for the first time and foreshadowing Steven coming upon "Bushkill Park"; and, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with its human-flesh eating, recently deceased attacking the farmhouse stronghold (remember the vulnerable back door of that black and white farmhouse kitchen?) foreshadowing the eventual attack on the farmhouse stronghold protecting Hiney, Gladys, and Steven. Then there is Manson and gang looming over all.
If you lived during those early days of the 70s, no matter if in a rural area or a suburb, and you remember stories about LSD-tripping babysitters roasting their chargers and just happened to have a grandmother who loved horror movies, you'll "get" this film. If you didn't live back then, no worries but just don't think that this a film along the lines of CHILDREN OF THE CORN, whatever-that-awful-movie-with-aliens-and-Mel-Gibson-was, or some new tread on Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE because it just isn't.
On the negative side: The dark, metallic filter so commonly used and Tara Reid's wigs.
The thing is: I knew, when I watched THE FIELDS for the first time, that it's a special film. It's not easily categorized. When Gladys says, "It's not the dead you have to be afraid, it's the living," or something to that effect, she basically gives the story away. But this film has been poorly described and promoted. Truly, here is what the Hulu+ summary says of the film: "Steven is sent to live in the countryside with his grandparents while his parents work through their troubles. Though his grandparents are happy to host him, they warn Steven not to enter the cornfields next to their house. When he does an EVIL awakens." That's garbage. No "EVIL awakens." This is the trouble with this film, particularly here at IMDb where I can only conjecture that the low-rating for this film is due to the fact that viewers approach this film with expectations that, most definitely, are not fulfilled. There are no zombies, vampires, devil children, or alien grays here. There's something worse. There's the living; and, beyond even that, there is the notion that not all "in-breds" are chainsaw-wielding former-meat butchers turned cannibal murderers.
Having been almost the exact age of Steven (Joshua Ormand) in 1973 and remembering the aftermath of the Manson murders as seen through the evening news...staying up after 11:00 pm with my parents and watching the Detroit-area television premier of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, perhaps in 1973...watching CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1963) on Saturday afternoon horror film programs...having relatives like Gladys--chain-smoking, cuss-like-a-sailor, kind and gentle and crazy funny--and,in retrospect, remembering how the "Summer of Love" turned sour, how there were Manson admirers and "hippies" really freaking out and becoming something of terrorists...suffice it to say, I "get" the horror of this film.
Then there are the references to folklore--the cornfield, the raven leading Steven into it for the first time, the stick hurled out from the corn like an elf-shot. There are the references to classic films and television with clips of DRAGNET and Webb mentioning a tragedy involving a grandmother and her grandson; CARNIVAL OF SOULS with Candace Hilligoss's Mary Henry coming upon "Saltair" for the first time and foreshadowing Steven coming upon "Bushkill Park"; and, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with its human-flesh eating, recently deceased attacking the farmhouse stronghold (remember the vulnerable back door of that black and white farmhouse kitchen?) foreshadowing the eventual attack on the farmhouse stronghold protecting Hiney, Gladys, and Steven. Then there is Manson and gang looming over all.
If you lived during those early days of the 70s, no matter if in a rural area or a suburb, and you remember stories about LSD-tripping babysitters roasting their chargers and just happened to have a grandmother who loved horror movies, you'll "get" this film. If you didn't live back then, no worries but just don't think that this a film along the lines of CHILDREN OF THE CORN, whatever-that-awful-movie-with-aliens-and-Mel-Gibson-was, or some new tread on Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE because it just isn't.
On the negative side: The dark, metallic filter so commonly used and Tara Reid's wigs.