Fields of the Dead (2014) Directed by Daniel B. Iske

Sometimes I feel that I shouldn't even be wasting too many words on a particular movie. This is definitely one of those kind of movies. It's a movie that does absolutely nothing new or special but above all things is also one very poorly executed, generic, horror movie.

This movie does so much wrong, in my opinion. As a horror fan I of course have seen plenty of genre movies already, so it's true that it takes a lot for me to be genuinely surprised and impressed by a genre movie nowadays and it's also definitely true that all of them start to look and feel alike after a while. They are all doing the same things, use the same type of build up and feature the same type of characters, who are always all doing the same kind of things. But the fact that this also is one very generic horror movie really isn't its biggest problem.

First of all; this movie is all build up but there never is a satisfying enough payoff to anything. It constantly tries to build up tension and mystery for the movie but there hardly are any actual scares and reveals made within the story. In other words; it feels that you are watching a movie that's building up toward absolutely nothing. It's actually also a very boring, lackluster, movie to watch, partly because of these very reasons.

The problem with the story also is that there never is a clear visible treat. It ruins most of the tension and doesn't work out too well for its mystery either, since the movie just isn't ever an engaging enough one with anything. This definitely is the type of movie that could have used a threatening psychotic serial killer in it, or a monstrous, evil, deformed looking scarecrow, or anything else along those lines. It probably would have made things even more formulaic but probably also far more trilling and entertaining to watch as well.

It also is weird to see how the movie has basically 7 main characters in it. It's of course far too much and the movie should have had made some better choices with who it should have followed around at times but the problem with its characters also is that there are all far too much alike anyway. Or it at least feels that way, due to very the simple reason that none of the characters are developed well enough. You get to know absolutely nothing about them and therefor also won't care for any of them either. They aren't exactly made more likable neither by turning them into some very typical movie teenagers, who are far more interested in partying rather than working and have sex who ever is available to them at the moment.

Also please don't watch this movie expecting to get lots of creative killings or tons of blood and gore. There is hardly any of that present throughout this movie, which also adds to why this movie feels like a mostly very lackluster attempt.

It's also a very cheap looking and feeling movie, not necessarily with its actual visuals but more in the way how things get setup and are executed. The camera-work, editing and directing really isn't anything too impressive and the musical score never matches what is happening on screen. The dialog and acting isn't much better unfortunately. In other words, everything about this movie feels flawed, to say the very least.

All build up and no payoff makes this movie a dull, uninteresting and far from effective genre attempt, that really isn't worth your time.

3/10

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