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Texas Killing Fields

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Blue Light

Hanson Watley Entertainment

Infinity Media

Gideon Productions

QED International

United States of America

English

Sam Worthington

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Jessica Chastain

Chloë Grace Moretz

Jason Clarke

Annabeth Gish

Sheryl Lee

Stephen Graham

Corie Berkemeyer

Trenton Perez

Wayne Ferrara

Kerry Cahill

Maureen Brennan

Tony Bentley

Becky Fly

James Landry Hébert

John Neisler

Deneen Tyler

Samantha Beaulieu

Kelvin Payton

Ron Flagge

Jon Eyez

Joseph Meissner

Russell M. Haeuser

Joe Chrest

Tom Druilhet

Tatelyn Galentine

Donna DuPlantier

Jade Radford

Cassidy Smith

Leanne Cochran

Leah Elizabeth Sanchez

Jen Kober

Ryan Reinike

Lyle Brocato

Kirk Bovill

Jason Mitchell

Lenore Banks

Coryn Elizabeth Cunningham

Sean Michael Cunningham

Seth William Cunningham

Brayden Turner-Iuso

Anastasia Boissier

Doc Whitney

Brian Duffy

Tom Proctor

Brittney Diez

Mark Adam

Johnny Stassi

Jim Chimento

David Pressly

Michael Ohoven

Ami Canaan Mann

Michael Jaffe

Stuart Dryburgh

Jonah Markowitz

Paul Hanson

Bill Block

A. John A. Bryan Jr.

Justin Thomson

Dickon Hinchliffe

Don Ferrarone

Leonard R. Spears

Michael Mann

Ethan Smith

Christopher Lawrence

Diane Hassinger Newman

Cindy Mollo

Darrin Prescott

Chelsea Bruland

Yolanda Mercadel

Paige Reeves

Duane Manwiller

Paul Schnee

Janet Ingram

Carl Counts

Frank Avanzo

Megan Coates

Gary Jay

Steve Cassidy

Rell Putt

Aran Mann

Allison Estrin

Alison Parker

Greg Addison

Kevin Gazdik

Jim McConkey

P.K. Munson

Kerry Barden

Stacy Kelly

Bonnie Timmermann

Cynthia Nibler

Gusmano Cesaretti

Peter D. Roome

Chuck Stringer

David K. Nami

Tracy Kilpatrick

Mary Ann Waterstradt

Scheryl W Brown

William Scharpf

This place is nothing but chaos. Your God doesn’t even come here.

Texas Killing Fields is directed by Ami Canaan Mann and written by Don Ferrarone. It stars Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jason Clarke, Annabeth Gish and Stephen Graham. Music is by Dickon Hinchliffe and cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh. Film is based around real events involving the many murders of women whose bodies have been found in a desolate area of road and wasteland between Houston and Galveston.

Ami Canaan Mann is the daughter of Michael Mann, one of the masters of modern day crime story movies, so it’s not very surprising to see Ami, for her sophomore production, venture into murky waters. Texas Killing Fields is a bayou noir, where although the title hints at human devastation unbound, it’s actually a slow burning skin itcher more concerned with the people investigating crime than that of the perpetrators. How the sorry events affect all who come in to contact with the crimes at the film’s core, is what drives Texas Killing Fields on. Sadly the screenplay takes on board too much and nearly derails an otherwise very good movie.

If it comes down to atmosphere and technical smarts in achieving such? Then this is one of the finest of recent times. There’s a constant sense of broody foreboding throughout, the haunting landscapes are all gnarly and spectre like, the whole area literally stinks of death and misery. Even when the story is away from the fields of the title, there’s a mood of despair filtering out from Mann and Dryburgh’s lenses, the hot Texas weather draining every ounce of sweat from the emotionally troubled detectives. All of the atmosphere is helped considerably by Hinchliffe’s music, which piggybacks the misery with ominous bluesy tones.

Unfortunately all this deft atmospheric craft can’t stop the screenplay from being annoying. A sub-plot involving Worthington and Chastain as ex husband and wife is as pointless as it gets, which simultaneously wastes Chastain in the process. The makers have chosen to actually have suspects front and centre for the crimes on screen (unlike the real life cases, most of which remain unsolved), well they intend to keep it mysterious, but anyone paying attention will catch on quickly enough. There’s also problems with the sound mix, which at times is appalling, rendering some crucial dialogue exchanges as inaudible.

Cast are good, especially Morgan and Moretz, and Mann shows a good hand at action sequences to compliment her astute mood setting skills. But this still feels like a misfire, and subsequent critical appraisals and internet rating systems have it as just above average. That’s a little unfair, there’s much for the neo-noir/crime movie crowd to get enthralled by here, but Mann may need to sharpen up her story telling whiles to fully bloom her undoubted potential. 6.5/10

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Sam Worthington

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Jessica Chastain

Chloë Grace Moretz

Jason Clarke

Annabeth Gish

Sheryl Lee

Stephen Graham

Corie Berkemeyer

Trenton Perez

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