The Fallow Field

source: The Fallow Field

Awful. The previous two reviews before mine are obviously connected to the film. I won't review it. I will give you just one example. Which NO ONE can attack. I won't judge. I will just relate. You judge... At the finale of the movie, the bad guy has a shot-gun at the hero. It's just the two of them in a field. Just them. In a field. Just them. Looks like the hero is going to die. But then -- the Bad Guy hears a noise. Four feet away from where he stands. This noise alarms him. So he DROPS his shot-gun in the field. Yes, that's right, he DROPS it. In slow-motion. To run four feet. He doesn't keep the shot-gun. No no no. He can't run with a shot-gun. He has to drop it. He DROPS it so he can run to the noise in the ground. Four feet away. Surprisingly, the good guy picks up the gun, and kills the bad guy. The rest of the film is built so well.

Leigh Dovey's debut "The Fallow Field" is a reminder that British horror is very much alive and kicking. It is also a film that needs to be seen by many - but to review it in too much depth would give away the delicious plot twists. For a film shot on a tight budget the end result easily competes with films with far more to spend. It is also fresh to see a film where characters and dialogue are central to the filmmaker - I hope that the horror buffs of today, fattened on a diet of Saw and Hostel films can give this the time it so rightly deserves. The film deals with an unlikely pairing of Matt (Steve Garry), a man prone to blackouts and amnesia who finds himself dumped by both his partner and mistress because of his erratic behaviour, and Calham (Michael Dacre) - the menacing farmer with a brutal and possibly tragic history. Michael Dacre is compelling as Calham, oozing both evil and dark humour as the cat and mouse element of the film unfolds. Matt seeks answers for his blackouts, and through a strong sense of deja-vu ends up at Calham's farm. In a pivotal scene Dovey has the two central characters alone in a barn - here again it is left to the dialogue and the actors to carry the directors vision of evil forward. Indeed much of the film relies upon the strength of the two lead actors. The isolation - even in the sweeping landscapes of Surrey - of the farm and farmer stand-out, as do the themes of mother-nature and death. I should also mention how the camera-work, direction and particularly the music all combine to carry the audience along with a growing sense of unease and suspense. The soundtrack makes evocative use of ticking machinery and other natural things such as boiling water to match our own heartbeat. Let's hope that when this gets the release it has long deserved later in 2012 that others will find it. It's a grower....

Trailer—The Fallow Field

The Fallow Field