Traumatised by the event, Steve spends his time outside, playing with his Godzilla and dinosaur toys and occasionally nipping out with his grandad to pick up the groceries. He also seems to have an obsession with Charles Manson, who he sees on the TV, thinking he will escape prison and come after him!
While playing in the corn field, he stumbles across a dead girl. Although he tells his grandad, the old boy thinks nothing of it, other than putting it down to a child's wild imagination.
Out and about, picking up some milk from the local farm shop, Steven sets off alone to take a peek at the cows, where farm hand Eugene is working. Right from the get-go, Eugene gives off creepy vibes, even though him and Steven already know each other.
Inbetween the normal ruotine of life, playing around the house, slipping off into the corn field and having random encounters with hippies, disturbing things start to happen as the grandparents and grandson are terrorized by an unseen presence. As all this is going on, Steven's parents Bonnie and Barry are supposedly trying to work things out.
I do have to start by saying, about 40 minutes into the film I fell asleep! I put this down to the fact I was tired and simply went to bed when I woke up some 30 minutes later. So fresh out of the shower this morning, armed with a cup of tea and a cigarette, I sat down and watched it again, from the start.
Wide awake and bright eyed, I still stuggled to find anything of interest for alteast an hour into it! The mass of corn, the little Steven, the eerie surrounding of the whole place should've got me creeped out and on the edge of my seat. But it simply didn't. The discovery of the dead body in the field seems to get over looked, the completely random scene in the middle of the movie makes no real sense and the introduction of the hippies seems so obscure that you don't even think to yourself why they're there or why is this happening. The one thing that you can put your finger on, without giving certain things away, is predictable.
The best thing about this movie was Cloris Leachman performance as the racist foul mouthed grandma. Joshua Ormond, as Steven, came across with absolutely no emotional content what so ever. Yes, he's a kid, but I've seen better acting from younger performers. Lets face it, it's horror, the child of the piece should be creepy as hell while being cute and vulnerable at the same time. But in this case, there was simply nothing offered. In fact, the whole movie lacked any luster till around the 1 hour 25 minute mark, but even that died down after a few minutes!
Looking back on it, it was a real shame because the story itself is actually quite clever, how each piece fits together and the random parts that feel like they shouldn't even be in the movie at the time, do complete the puzzle. I say puzzle, let me explain...
It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle of something you have very little interest in, but then the end product is actually rather interesting, but because of the hours spent putting it together you're still disappointed. This is how the movie made me feel. The concept was good but the delivery was poor. With a better main cast and better direction I would have really rated this film.
The Cast - Directors - Tom Mattera & David Mazzoni
Tara Reid as Bonnie
Cloris Leachman as Gladys Writer - Harrison Smith
Joshua Ormond as Steven
Faust Checho as Barry
Brian Anthony Wilson as Charlie
Miles Williams as Jack
Karen Ludwig as Tootie
Max Antisell as Douglas
Louis Morabito as Eugene
Check out the trailer below...
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