The Empty Acre

Budget limitations, time restrictions, shooting a script and then cutting it, cutting it, cutting it... This crew is a group of good, young filmmakers; thoughtful in this script - yes, allegorical - clever in zero-dollar effects when time and knowledge is all you have, relying on actors and friends and kind others for their time, devotion, locations; and getting a first feature in the can, a 1-in-1000 thing. These guys make films. Good ones. Check out their shorts collection "Heartland Horrors" and see the development. And I can vouch, working with them is about the most fun thing you'll do in the business. I'm stymied by harsh, insulting criticism for this film, wondering if one reviewer even heard one word of dialogue, pondered one thought or concept, or if all that was desired of this work was the visual gore of bashing and slashing to satisfy some mindless view of what horror should mean to an audience. Let "The Empty Acre" bring itself to you. Don't preconceive what you expect it should be just because it gets put in the horror/thriller genre due to its supernatural premise. It's a drama with depth beyond how far you can stick a blade into someone with a reverence for a message that doesn't assault your brain's visual center, but rather, draws upon one's empathetic imagination to experience other's suffering of mind and spirit. mark ridgway, Curtis, "The Empty Acre"

This is probably one of the better riffs on H P Lovecraft's "Colour out of Space" that I've seen. It is certainly better than both "The Curse" and "Die Monster, Die!" Like any good suspense film (I'd not call this a horror movie) the Empty Acre relies on slowly suspense as the movie progresses. This isn't a movie for gore fans, or people with the attention span of a 5 year old. One really needs to commit to this film, but it is well worth it.

As the movie progresses and the relationship between the married couple grows more and more estranged, one can actually see the "Acre" responding to the emotional turmoil, feeding off of it and growing in strength.

While certainly not a direct interpretation of Lovecraft's work, the influence is there so strongly that you cannot miss it. This is a MUST for any fan of Lovecraft's work, and I admit that I look forward to seeing what Patrick Rea has done since.

You have to give these guys a break, if you want big budget horror watch one of the million dollar Hollywood movies, these are young guys trying to make it in one of the toughest industries. As a filmmaker myself i can tell you this is well edited, the acting is pretty good, he created good depth of field using a pro-sumer camera and he knew that keeping the angles tight is important when using a camera like the DVX100 as the resolution on these small cameras tends to break up when put to the big screen. I can tell you he does know how to make movies.All famous filmmakers have humble beginnings.The only thing i would say all things considered is that it is a bit too long. If you are an aspiring filmmaker i recommend watching this.

Dark, surreal, foreboding and interesting. I liked this film. Not loved but liked. Very H. P. Lovecraft which is really difficult to transfer to the screen, because they tried to tackle Lovecraft and did a pretty decent job, I gave them a 6.

When watching no budget, or extremely low budget, genre films one should expect to see a film that's rough around the edges, that is severely limited in what it can accomplish visually, and that must rely on actors who are not as experienced or as talented as they are simply enthusiastic and willing. One must overlook these flaws - to some degree - and instead focus on what the filmmakers attempt DESPITE the limitations. Most filmmakers seemingly never even try, or don't care, or perhaps just lack the talent to achieve anything other than "getting it done". The Empty Acre falls squarely in that rare category of a film that struggles to be a serious contender. There is thought and intent and a certain level of creativity behind the choices and the decisions the writer/director made (I absolutely loved the use of simple elongated shadow effects) and I have to applaud those while at the same time acknowledging that the film stumbles and fails on many levels regardless. If you are willing to cut it some slack and give it a chance the film rewards with an interesting premise, some effective visuals, and actors who are valiantly giving their best. Sadly the premise is never developed effectively. The screenplay is structured in such a fashion that huge parts of it seem to be missing (like the entire introduction to the "empty acre"). Characters don't always communicate like believable human beings in the situations they find themselves in. Even in scenes that are meant to establish the more mundane or unexceptional nature of the characters lives, they should still be interesting and insightful; unfortunately it feels like once the writer knew he wanted such a scene (which is brave enough in a genre film) he had no idea how to add the interest or insight. The scene just exists. Too much of the film just "sits there" in the execution. And there is an over reliance on editing tricks which might have been necessitated by problems during shooting or with the quality of finished scenes, but ultimately becomes simply distracting and pushes the audience away from the film instead of bringing them in to it. Yes, it can be wonderful all the tools available to the digital editor, but that doesn't mean you have to use them all at the same time. And despite all the editing, editing, editing going on the films pace is poor from the outset and endlessly cutting to overused footage of cracked earth doesn't help in the least. Once or twice is eerie but by the three thousandth time it's simply boring and feels like visual padding. Although it never fulfilled on it's promise, and on several occasions was a struggle to get through, I still think it's worthwhile watching the product of filmmakers who are at least trying to create something original regardless of their limitations. With a better developed script (and a less "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" approach to editing) I wouldn't mind seeing what the filmmaker could accomplish in the future.