The Fields

This is a very interesting little film. It sort of looks like a standard horror film but then it zigs into a very odd slice of americana during a rather intense time for us. The year is 1973 and a young boy is sent to live in the country with his grandparents. Things are a little stressful at home specially since Daddy pointed the gun at Mommy's head. They are trying a trial seperation before there is need of a trial. Each has found their own bar and bottle to crawl into. The grandparents are caring but are also rather odd, specially grandma played with crankypants joy by Cloris Leachman. So the kid is left basically by himself to try to figure things out like whether he should worry about finding Charles Manson under his bed, or what to do about the dead body he discovered in the cornfields.

This is certainly an actor's film with Cloris taking the lead, but the young boy (Joshua Ormond) does pretty well conveying a child's view of a rather weird and twisted world. Sometimes there are fun moments like I love the overly dramatic music that plays when he pretends to be Godzilla. Other times he encounters situations where you wish there a monster with a zipper running down its back. Trust me a visit to Aunt Grace is not something you will ever forget.

Definitely worth a view for film viewers who are in it for more than money shots or two hundred fifty million dollar budgets.