Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Masterpiece!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

****SPOILERS**** It's when fashion designer Emily Weaver, Leisha Halley,suffered a miscarriage with black not red blood gushing out of her what ever it was decided by her husband Nate, Gale Harold, for the two to move out of New York City and to his ancestral home in New Hampshire that's been in the Weaver family since, when buffalo and Indians roamed the countryside, the mid 1700's. At first everything was honky doorie for the young couple until Emily started to see things in and out of the house that didn't really exist but only in her mind. This was causing Emily to lose touch with reality and the fact that a body, of a woman, was later discovered buried in the houses outside drain pipe made her even more paranoid as well as a bit nutty. It's town historian Avery Hutchin, Chelcle Ross, who knew the terrible secret of the haunted Weaver family that had every women who was expecting a child by a male member of the Weaver clan die tragically before she came full term! It's when Emerly was found to be pregnant by a local what looked like quack doctor that she realized that she didn't have long to live and that it was her loving and caring husband, who had since gone cold towards her , Nate like the previous male members of the Weaver clan who's going to do her in! All this time Emily has been seeing ghosts of the past roaming around the Weaver house and in one case killing Nate's co-worker Risa, Stephanie Brown,at the art gallery whom she suspected him of having an affair with her by pushing her out of a two story window with her bleeding, black blood, to death before help arrived.***SPOILERS***It's Emily's good friend Brittany, JoNell Kennedy, who knows that she needs help before she ends up killing herself or someone else who tried to come to help her only to get herself stabbed to death by accident by Emily who mistakes her for Nate whom she feels is out to murder her. We soon find out that Emily is completely psycho and all this, what's going on in her head, is conjured up by her in the aftermath of the miscarriage she suffered at the beginning of the movie.This lead to Emily ending up in a padded room at a local mental asylum for the criminally insane by the time the film ended.

Fairly formulaic story. A likable couple move into an isolated country house after suffering a miscarriage, wife is sensitive to ghostly manifestations and grows tetchy when hubby doubts her. Are the manifestations real or a product of her spiralling instability? The direction is very effective, very fluid, it is rare for the camera not to be slowly panning around events. And while the acting of the two leads is very strong (Leisha Hailey as Emily and Gale Harold as Nate – Hailey in particular provides a convincing essay on descent into total misery), this kind of story has been told many times before. It doesn't help that the ghosts are very solid looking, and that the undead William is played by Gale Harold in a wig.In the end, we are undecided whether or not Emily's tragedy is to blame for her own cruel madness or whether the curse of the house has been pre-planned all along.

After moving out to a secluded family-owned house in the wilderness, a woman begins to fear that the ghost of an ancestor is looking to be reborn through her unborn baby and tries to save herself before succumbing to a curse that will enable it to happen.An overall decent enough effort, as there's some pretty good stuff here and a couple utterly aggravating ones. The initial mystery of the house and how it's built up are fairly well-done, with some classic old-school style hauntings of things reappearing or doing something they're not supposed to be doing just off-screen from their viewpoint or the old standard of a figure dashing by in the background, but as well the unraveling mystery of what's going on inside makes for some really good stuff. That makes the finale pretty interesting with it's action sequences of trying to keep the possessed figure out of the house, but the film ultimately suffers due to the utterly aggravating and totally irritating tactic of trying to force the fact that behavioral change is the main selling point of something horrific or terrifying in the course of the film, and instead of generating fear, it instills anger at him for the treatment inflicted upon her and annoyance at her for putting up with it to begin with. That also leaves a large segment of the middle of the film totally devoid of action, lowering it's momentum and pacing somewhat, but overall it's still not a bad time at all.Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence, Nudity and a mild sex scene.

I rated FERTILE GROUND as high as I did purely on the outstanding performance of Leisha Hailey. She was genuine, gritty, elicited sympathy, reacted honestly, and just did an outstanding job.Was the plot derivative? YES it was. But, how many horror movies are truly based on new ideas? Aren't they all derived from our own fears and experiences?FERTILE GROUND was just another episodic adventure into the nightmare world of one woman.It's been a long time since I've seen such a good performance; and, I really think Leisha Hailey carried the film. Her makeup, hair and wardrobe were perfect for a "relocated city girl." And, the setting was perfect - old house, lovingly updated; but, not too much so.The maple tree was allegory for the deteriorating relationship between the two; and, the nightmare scenes blended reality, ghost, and dream just right. Nothing was over the top; not too many effects. All around, I enjoyed this quite a bit. Better than most I see on the SyFy channel, that's for sure!