(Spoiler Alert)
The Field (by Found The Ribbon Films, directed and co-written by Tate Bunker) could have been a decent, promising story, if it were not for a poorly executed ending. Set in rural Wisconsin, The Field is a rendition of the age-old story of city dwellers looking for a fresh start in a small, country town. Our characters (Ben and Lydia) have bought an abandoned farm house with the hopes of renewing their strained marriage. As these scenarios go, an abandoned farm usually holds a plethora of terrifying secrets. This farm is no different.
Years ago a mysterious wormhole opens up on the farm, and a local woman (Edith) disappears only to return (naked) years later. When our couple run into her (on their property, mind you), the town folk have an over-dramatized, angry reaction, as if our couple did something wrong. The sheriff is the most hostile, and it plays out in a very awkward manner. I’ve know small town folk to be cautious, but I’ve never known them to be outraged right from the get go. Aside from that, the story was well written and well developed. As Ben and Lydia discover that the farm was the setting for an ancient pagan rite, tensions start to run high with the town folk.
With ancient rights, mysterious wormholes, and a strange woman who seems like she belongs to another world, one would think that a spectacular ending would be an easy feat. Not in this film. Sadly, the writers seemed to have rushed off and dropped the ball with this movie’s ending. There was no explanation of the rite, no explanation of where anyone went, no explanation for anything. At one point in the film, both Ben’s wife and Edith disappear into a wormhole created by an electric surge, and they return later only to have the film end with that…..they reappear and it’s over. They give you nothing more. The film works you up into a vortex of anticipation and then just walk out of the room, leaving you hanging. It’s like going on a date that is, well, anticlimactic. Oh, there’s a “magic” windmill, that I am assuming is some kind of electric conduit for the creation of our wormhole, but don’t count on having that explained in any depth either. In the end, a better ending could have made this a great story.
