Now available on DVD
Cast:
Leisha Haley as Emily Weaver
Gale Harold as Nate Weaver
Chelcie Ross as Avery
Jami Bassman as Mary Weaver
Directed by Adam Gierasch
Review:
Fertile Ground is the latest release in the inaugural After Dark Originals slate from After Dark Films.
This ghost/haunted house film was directed by Adam Gierasch, who wrote the screenplay with his long-time screenwriting partner Jace Anderson. This screenwriting/directing duo previously brought us the Night of the Demons remake in 2010 and the 2009 After Dark Horrorfest release Autopsy.
Fertile Ground opens with an effective sequence showing the Emily character struck by a sudden and unexpected miscarriage. In the aftermath of this trauma, Emily and husband Nate relocate to a remote country house to try and start over.
A partial skeleton is unearthed on the property and Emily starts to experience ghostly visions as she pieces together the grim history of her new home. As this is happening, Emily learns sheâs pregnant again and Nate grows more and more distant and a terrifying rift grows between husband and wife.
To say that Fertile Ground very heavily channels Dan Curtisâ Burnt Offerings and Stanley Kubrickâs The Shining – and therefore the books by Robert Marasco and Stephen King the films are based on – would be an incredible understatement. Bits and pieces of those films are very poorly recreated in Fertile Ground , including a scene where Emily discovers all work and no play make Nate a dull boy-here substituting blank canvases for endless sheets of typed print.
Other lifts include a confrontation that sends the homicidal Nate tumbling down a set of stairs Jack Torrance-style and an earlier death by window jump that strongly recalls the fate of Oliver Reedâs character at the end of Burnt Offerings.
While varying degrees of influence are inevitable in all horror subgenres, Gierasch and Anderson seem content here to put a together a pastiche of favorite ghost/haunted house film moments instead of diving headlong into a real attempt at a fresh take on the subgenre. This approach is all too common in cinema, especially at this point in film history, but it doesnât make for good films. There were definitely some opportunities in Fertile Ground to add some freshness. For instance, veteran character actor Chelcie Ross is completely wasted as an exposition tool when the film would have really benefited from portraying his character as someone truly obsessed with the house and its history and getting him much more involved in the story.
The film also adds in some incredibly unnecessary DVD-ready chapter titles between portions of the film as though the audience needs the story progression spelled out for them. Fertile Ground is ultimately a highly imitative, by-the-numbers film.
