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  • Warning: Spoilers
    When Emily (Leisha Hailey) has a miscarriage of her baby, she decides to move to the countryside with her husband Nate Weaver (Gale Harold) to live in an isolated ancient house that had belonged to Nate's family. Sooner Emily is haunted and has dreadful visions of fiends and discovers that she is pregnant again. Further she learns that pregnant women have been murdered in that house and Nate is possessed by the evil spirit of his ancestor.

    "Fertile Ground" is an unoriginal and mediocre collection of clichés. I do not recall how many similar films I have seen until today with practically the same story and clichés. My vote is three.

    Title (Brazil): "After Dark: Semente do Mal" ("After Dark: Seed of the Evil")
  • Fertile Ground (2011) Been on my watch list for a while,

    Couple move to home after the wife losses her baby, then move they move to a new house, Then wife see strange thing start to happen around the house and husband dose not believe.

    This movie felt like every other haunted house movie I have seen, I felt that didn't really got ground , this movie didn't not feel scary for one second, the whole movie was bit bland.

    It could be really boring no real plot in the movie, it could the be really bad script (Half of it didn't even make sense or it could have been the really bad acting from everyone in this movie, i would say all of the above.

    I wouldn't say the worst haunted house movie but it as got to be one of the most boring ones i ever seen. 4 out of 10
  • Warning: Spoilers
    ****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.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Wow. Didn't the director encourage this actress to take a shower before showing up on the set? In a nutshell: An unshowered boring-as-hell woman walks around the house seeing things. She is obviously on and off her Thorazine because sometimes she seems sane to the viewers of this (cough) movie and sometimes she doesn't. For the most part it doesn't matter because the movie plods along with the speed of a Turtle on tranquilizers.

    No spoiler alert necessary. The entire movie was spoiled by cheapo filming that looked like it was done with an old camera with videotape still in it. The actors (choke), as stated previously, all looked and acted like they were on a 7 day drunk and didn't shower. They did show up to film this movie. Big mistake.
  • I'll start by saying, this has all the makings of a decent movie, namely acting and production value. Nevertheless, it fails on every other level, horror, suspense, artistic... whatever. It's not scary at all. The characters are dull and one dimensional, the story is uninteresting. I was so bored during the stupid thing. All these After Dark horror movies are the same. Still better than Fangoria Frightfest (which all are GOD AWFUL). Give me Piranha 3D over this tripe. At least stuff happens in that movie, and I only waste 83 minutes or whatever. If you have insomnia, rent this movie. It will get you to sleep, trust me. It got me to sleep three times. I finally finished it on the fourth. Oh, and the woman's voice will drive you nuts.
  • I'm always on the search for new horror movies and they generally fail to make me finish the film and feel scared or, more importantly, think "that was a great film".

    This one is just the same. I think if you're looking for some horror and have come to the expectancy I have (5-7/10 max), then this is OK to play something for the night.

    My tip is simply... not to watch the trailer! Just like all crappy comedies, instead of all the best jokes being in the trailer... all of the jumpy parts are in the trailer. This makes it really lack anything in the fear factor!

    Worth a watch if you want to watch a basic horror, but its nothing special.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Seriously, can I get a time refund? This was awful. Overly long, drawn out story. Not much happens. Mostly, it's boring. You keep expecting something to happen, and nothing ever really does.

    A couple move into a haunted house. Ghosts show up. Not much, though. Weird stuff happens. People die, the end.

    It's been done a thousand times, and a thousand times better than this.

    Has a crappy ending, too.

    Why waste the time, you can find a much better movie to watch. The trailer made this look good, but you are better off just watching the trailer. Or go watch the original King's The Shining, at least that's got real creepiness.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Another low budget horror film from After Dark productions; FERTILE GROUND is a low rent haunted house story built on traditional lines. The lead character, played by Hilary Swank lookalike Leisha Hailey, moves into a home with her husband after the sudden loss of her baby. She soon finds herself plagued by visions which may or may not be linked to a skull found in the house's plumbing system. Everything that transpires here is low key in the extreme, with the usual CGI ghostly effects limited to a single scene or two. However, it's not too bad, despite being very cheap. Hailey delivers a strong performance and the slow-building tension is roughly effective at times. Hardly a great film, but an amiable time-waster nonetheless.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Director, co-writer and even cast member, Adam Gierasch brings us the tale of Emily Weaver, a city girl who, after her miscarriage is whisked by her husband to his family home in rural Iowa.

    The country idyll and her own recovery begin to pale as she discovers the grizzly past of former occupants whose malevolent spirits haunt the house. Discovering that she is pregnant again, she realises that she may face the same fate as previous expectant mothers who were killed by their partners...

    ...at least, that's what we are led to believe. The truth turns out to be much more prosaic and is, unfortunately, one of a number of downfalls which help to make this attempt so disappointing. Seen through the eyes of our heroine, she sees her artist husband's agent Risa attempting a romantic intrigue with him, her best friend Brittany conspiring with him and the man himself falling into madness whilst plotting her demise.

    We are of course given enough clues - depression, stopping medication, hints of paranoia - to work out the truth and to guess the ending which takes an overlong time to appear on the horizon.

    Whilst there are a few scary and gory moments, there is not enough here even to pad out an hour and a half which means it feels like two hours or more until we reach a quite expected denouement. Stephan Sechi's soundtrack does little to enhance particularly as it is frequently played at a level which drowns out dialogue - although this could be claimed to improve things slightly as the characters seem to have to carefully explain everything to each other in case we miss anything. Shot on location, the starkness of the Iowan landscape, although hinted at, is largely wasted.

    Leisha Hailey does fairly well as Emily Weaver despite - or perhaps because of - depending on one's point of view - the almost obsessive images of her cleavage and breasts. Less convincing in their roles are Gale Harold as her husband Nate, Stephanie Brown as Risa and JoNell Kennedy as Brittany.

    Whilst IMDb does not give a budget for this film, this would seem to be the biggest stumbling block. The camera work, location shooting and general air of cleverness seem to indicate an attempt to produce a serious horror movie. Perhaps the makers would have been better off with a smaller budget and a chance to ham it up a little...

    One footnote: The chapter headings were both pointless and annoying.
  • The movie "Fertile Ground" took me by surprise. I had not heard about it prior to picking it up, so when I found out it was an After Dark horror series movie, I was pleasantly surprised, because they usually put out some nice movies.

    "Fertile Ground" does not deliver any groundbreaking new storyline, everything here has been seen before. But still it worked out quite well, as it was nicely composed and put together. The storyline, shortly summarized, is: Nate and Emily Weaver are living in the city and expecting a child, when they suffer an unfortunate miscarriage. To start over, they move to an old house in a rural setting. It turns out that they have an unknown relation to the story of the house, and things start to turn dark and dire...

    The movie builds up a lot of suspense and there is always something just lurking below the surface, which is good, because it makes you want to see more and know more. There is also a good amount of thrills and scenes that make you jump in your seat.

    As for the acting in the movie, well it was mostly people I hadn't seen before, or at least can't remember having seen before. And the movie is mainly carried by Leisha Hailey (playing Emily Weaver). The people in the movie all did good jobs with their roles and their acting.

    Having seen the movie now, and read some reviews here and there, I don't really understand why people shoot this movie down, because I found it to be a good horror movie. It has all the necessary ingredients to make a good horror movie. Despite it being nothing new and innovating, the movie has a good plot, good shocks and a good pace. If you like horror movies, then check out "Fertile Ground".
  • Warning: Spoilers
    Charges of unoriginality and predictability are often leveled against your average B-grade horror pap, but rarely have I seen a film so deserving of these criticisms.

    Without even a touch of hyperbole, almost every plot turn could easily be predicted beforehand. Even the smallest things. The tree planted in the backyard, where she ends up at the end, Nate's paintings, the fates of Nate and her friend, even the bathroom scene near the beginning of the film - all utterly predictable. Certain events that occur are so sign-posted that even a horror film novice will see something coming later on. A good example is the intercom. The scene where it is introduced is such an obvious set up for what the director/writers must have thought was a cool creepy bit later on. The problem is, when it comes, it just isn't cool or creepy. We'd known it was coming all along and it just ends up being lame. The most glaring example is probably the box of old photos and stuff they find belonging to the early ancestors who had lived in the house. "He looks just like you", she says to Nate. Hmm, I wonder where this is going?! Seriously, it's all so predictable I even found myself mouthing dialog before the characters did on a couple of occasions. I swear, if you simply told the title - "Fertile Ground" - to a horror film buff who hadn't seen it they'd soon be piecing together something very close to the plot after not very long.

    Positives? Well, I found the whole exercise of predicting all the goings-on to be entertaining in itself (hence the quite generous 4 stars). It might make a good drinking game: chug a beer every time your prediction comes true. You'd be smashed 40 minutes in! Genuine positives? The actors do OK. The female lead kind of looks like the attractive "Sex in the City" character. (Not horse-face, not the old one, not the ginger one - the other one.) Settings, camera work, lighting...Geez! What horror fan wants to pick out 'lighting' as one of a film's few merits?!

    So, overall, not many positives here. Certainly not for a seasoned horror fan. The whole thing is far too cliché-ridden, far too predictable and unoriginal. The odd jump scare and syth-stab soundtrack tricks and the few glimpses of ghostly former tenants are not enough to produce genuine scares. Avoid "Fertile Ground".
  • 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!
  • I must say that Gale Harold gives a really good and interesting performance in this, the other actors are OK, far better then what usually turns up in typical horror films. One thing I really liked was there are no stupid teenagers or slashers in here, too many horror films feel they need that to sell the viewer but not here. There is a few slow moments in the movie but overall it was really entertaining! It is more of a supernatural horror film, not too much blood and guts like most turn out to be, this one has it's scary moments without that and without being stupid or boring. It may remind you of a 70's style film, it has a twist with no CGI or crappy effects to get in the way of the storyline. I would recommend this to any horror fan who likes supernatural/ghost movies.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    "Fertile Ground" is basically the Frankenstein of haunted house movies. Basically everything in the script has been borrowed or taken from other much better ghost movies. You have the wife who is suffering loss in the form of her stillborn child, the husband who brings her out to the middle of no where "for her health" far from an unidentified rural town, she's left alone a lot for pretty much to let her imagination to run wild and for the ghosts to scare her, and as usual, the husband never believes her stories. After all, this is "his" family home. Add to all of these plot points are the rumors that he might be having an affair. However, there are some rather chilling scenes and uncovered evidence of a recurring series of murders which occur, and as predicted, all of this does occur during the date of the cycle. There are some very chilling scenes, several legitimate scares and the actors pull off fine performances, but the drawback is that the movie ends very unsatisfactory. Maybe that's the point – to create a scary ghost movie that doesn't end on a happy note or a now-what-happens scene. "Fertile Ground" might be heavily formulaic, but the direction and climax are worth the watch.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I'm not picky at all about horror movies I watch. I forgive all the elements that are redundant, predictable, and tripe. I watch for the things that surprise me, and make me glad to see that something was done well. It might be something trivial, a specific shot, a good location, a particular scene that was inspired. Sadly, this movie missed out on most of those things. There was nothing in the movie that was noteworthy. The performances were stock. It's hard to tell if the sets were any good, since they cast everything in shadow. The story itself was derivative, pulled mostly from pregnancy themed horror movies (at least only in the sense that pregnancy is used as a means of giving the heroine something to protect) and otherwise, a large amount was borrowed from The Shining. These aren't bad things to borrow from. The problem is only that they didn't do it well. The movie is otherwise competent. Sound is a little unbalanced, with the soundtrack too loud compared to the dialogue. I've noticed this trend as well. I think it's connected to the sound being mixed to be played on theater sound systems - or at least 5.1 systems.

    I always get more disappointed with movies like this than I do in notably bad productions. In these cases, I know that I'll forget everything about the movie in a few days, and when I see the cover again, I'll forget that I've already seen it.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    I "had to" watch it because my girlfriend's nephew was in it.

    The nephew did all right in his small part.

    The two main characters were not very likable, so it was difficult to "care" about what happened to them.

    The bad background music was louder than the dialog in some places; the sound was also echo-y and sometimes hard to understand.

    After moving - away from the woman's friends so she can get over her depression, which doesn't make any sense - they find an adult human skull in the clogged drain of their new house, which also doesn't make any sense because the pipe was too small.

    Some medium-sized furry animals I couldn't identify - big squirrels? - made a couple of appearances for no apparent reason.

    I guess it was supposed to be about ghosts, but it seemed more like the woman was just getting nutty. After imagining some other women wandering around in a bloody dress, she ends up killing hubby and best friend, then ends up in a padded cell after or while having a baby.

    Altogether not worth watching unless you're trying to sleep.
  • BakuryuuTyranno8 November 2011
    Warning: Spoilers
    Some horror films have little happening on screen while building atmosphere. Some have little happening because there's literally very little happening.

    Credit where credit is due - at first it seemed it would be unsettling throughout. Unfortunately that atmosphere evaporated quickly.

    We're supposed to believe Emily is in danger from her spirit-influenced husband; however he doesn't seem potentially psychotic, but kinda cranky, thus there isn't any sense of danger.

    Therefore I thought it would build towards an overused (associated with, but predating, "High Tension"); this would've been a rare occasion where it would've worked. Strangely it didn't occur, no, the cranky husband really is the intended threat.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    To write a review about this film is hard, when you don't want to sound like you hated it, when you thought it was okay... It is not scary, so horror or thriller is overreacting, but if your girlfriend can't take much gore or is easily scared, this film might be the perfect one, before you start with something like the ring or saw.

    The story has potential, it is a common horror story plot line, with a couple moving to the countryside, but with a bit more background than most of those plot lines. Here I at first got some hope, that it won't be as boring as most films with these plot lines are... But... Yeah, as mentioned, disappointed viewer.

    When Emily starts to see things, you kinda get a bit creeped and wonder what is the reason, but it soon is boring. Nothing happens, besides her seeing ghost, who do nothing but being their. Even the breathing sound in paranormal activity is scarier than this, after it happened twice. Wasted potential A.

    Since she found this kinda box, the story gets interesting about the people who lived there before and later on, they find a skeleton in their yard.

    Nate turns kinda like Jack Nicholson in the Shining and you have this unseen, only mentioned panting on which he is working and you get hinted to many times. But later on, when it's revealed you get, yet again, disappointed... Wasted potential B.

    Emily gets pregnant again and stops taking her pills, now *hit is getting serious... You at least hope so. But, no, the ghost still appear, do nothing and then are gone. Nate works on his painting and behaves still weird.

    The way in which the story is told, won't help to let you fell like it's needlessly stretched. It's repetitive and leaves a feeling of "buying time" so the film won't end after 30mins (which would have improved it to at least 6.5 starts in my opinion...).

    At their housewarming party Emily gets again one of those "psychomoments" and the first really mysterious thing happens. A friends dies, which is something you think would have a deeper impact on the story but isn't mentioned to much. When you recycle those boring ghost presence, make it so you think at least they'll do something. Wasted potential C.

    Now, finally, the end is in sight. But again, you get not a good, tight packed end which is thrilling or scary. You get the long, boring, every-move is predictable ending, which is a classical horror film ending. In the ending I see wasted potential D.

    The final scenes of the film are not needed if you didn't fall asleep during the final, but just in case you did, it will kinda explain it to you.

    Making a good horror film is hard, yes. Especially with ghost, since the genre is overloaded. But when you got such a good idea, decent actors and wasted potential don't make a film needlessly longer so you can get it to be a long-running film. This film would have been a real gem as short film, it saddens to see, how it was stretched and many things clearly made to make it easy to understand, which kind of lead to a really "see-through" storyline. In the end a film you can see with someone who is easy scared and can't take to much gore. When you see it as a couple maybe a bit more scaring than as single.
  • The premise is simple as a couple move to a new house after the spouse had miscarriage her infant. Then, the wife see peculiar things begin to occur around the house and husband denies it.

    This film felt like each and every other frequented horror house you usually see in other movies.

    Nothing different could be pointing here or to be hold accountable for.

    The cinematography is cold and will leave you with few jump scares.

    The ominous sound effect will follow throughout the film.

    The acting is acceptable but the writing could have been improvised by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson.

    I would not recommend it to anyone unless if any individual who simply need a straightforward and a regular spooky house film.
  • Daisuash7 April 2019
    A boring and unoriginal mess that only gets a star because of the great cleavage. Even if all those scenes are unnecessary as hell.
  • Fertile Ground is one that was released by After Dark Originals. So that means that it is something special, something on his own. When Fertile Ground starts you will be surprised to see some nudity from the first second. But don't think it's gratuitous, it do adds to the film. I don't really know where to place it because it is a slow builder with not that much of horror in it. It's all about having a miscarriage and the influence it has towards the couple. They decide to move to another place which belongs to the husbands family. There the woman is confronted with the past via a ghost. Slowly she's becoming mad and think it's all in her mind because she had that miscarriage and is again pregnant. But is it? As I said before there isn't that much of horror it's more a ghost story with towards the final part of this flick some cruelty. So you really have to dig a lot of talking before things go awry. Nevertheless, it never bored me due the excellent performances by the couple. If you like for example The Others and stuff like that than this is your piece of cake. Luckily no CGI was used (except for a hand appearing on a window) for effects which adds towards the flick.
  • Saw this movie last night, knowing nothing about it apart from the title. I have heard of the after dark company and yes I know they're b movies or less, so I knew before starting this film what I was in for. So after watching the movie, I have sat and realised the good and bad. The good, the acting was above par, the story wasn't knew but it was done to a good standard, Leisha Hailey dare I say was very good in her role. The bad, the ghosts were done really bad they should have tried better in this department, the film wasn't a little bit scary, they should have made it a lot more scary and the ending which I thought was really bad, it could been done a lot better. Overall an okay film, nothing new but not terrible.
  • Don't trust those low ratings. The movie is really good. Yes, it doesn't contain anything we didn't see before in haunted house stories. But well, the same can be said about classical movies of any genre. If you like the genre as much as I do, you'll probably like this movie. If you are looking for something very original, check art house, not horror.There is still an unresolved question in the end, if there really was something supernatural in the house or the woman just gone mad because of her stresses, coincidences and imagination. And yes, we've seen such open endings before, too. But again, I see nothing wrong in it. Just yesterday I've watched another movie with a similar plot - "Deadline", but "Fertile Ground" is better, in my opinion.
  • This movie was pretty good overall but the chapter cards were annoying. The script was excellent with very little adult language and nudity plus the suspense kept building throughout the movie. The actors did a superb job and the cinematography was excellent with spectacular scenic shots.The special effects were outstanding and the movie was totally filmed in the USA.Also on the DVD that I watched had a commentary by the writers and director along with one of the actresses which was good but they strayed off the production of the movie at times and there was profanity but it is still worth listening to plus there are storyboard sequences which are worth watching.
  • Warning: Spoilers
    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.
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