Story of movie Texas Killing Fields : Texas Killing Fields (also known as The Fields) is a 2011 American crime film directed by Ami Canaan Mann and starring Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain and Chloë Grace Moretz. It competed in the 68th Venice International Film Festival in September.
| Texas Killing Fields | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ami Canaan Mann |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Don Ferrarone |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Dickon Hinchliffe |
| Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Edited by | Cindy Mollo |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.69 million |
Several killings occur along Houston's I-45 corridor between Houston and Galveston, in and around an area known as "the killing fields". The film's screenplay was loosely inspired by true events surrounding the murders of women kidnapped from cities spread along 30 plus miles of I-45 corridor and dumped in many areas to include numerous bayous surrounding the oil fields of Texas City, Texas. While in real life there have been numerous itinerant serial killers involved over the years, the film focuses on specific local Texas City suspects.
Screenplay
This article needs an improved plot summary. (January 2016) |
Homicide detectives Mike (Sam Worthington) and Brian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) investigate the murder of a girl and the disappearance of a young woman. Meanwhile, Ann (Chloë Grace Moretz), a neglected local girl whose mother Lucie (Sheryl Lee) is a drug addict, goes missing.
- Sam Worthington as Detective Mike Souder
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Detective Brian Heigh
- Jessica Chastain as Detective Pam Stall
- Chloë Grace Moretz as Little Anne Sliger
- Jason Clarke as Rule
- Annabeth Gish as Gwen Heigh
- Sheryl Lee as Lucie Sliger
- Stephen Graham as Rhino
- James Hébert as Eugene Sliger
- Sean Michael Cunningham as Sean Heigh
- Leanne Cochran as Lila
- Tony Bentley as Capt. Bender
- Holly Ladnier as Emergency Call Director
- Kirk Bovill as Boyfriend
The film was originally going to be directed by Danny Boyle before he left the project and was replaced by Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of director Michael Mann, who produced the film. Boyle said that the film was "so dark it would never get made".
The film was distributed overseas by Entertainment Film Distributors, a British company. Filming began on May 3, 2010, in Louisiana, United States.
The soundtrack was scored by Dickon Hinchliffe (formerly of Tindersticks) except for three tracks credited to The Americans.
Texas Killing Fields received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 33% based on 49 reviews, with a consensus that read, "Texas Killing Fields is a competent boilerplate crime thriller, brewing up characters and plots used in better films." Metacritic gave the film a rating of 49/100, based on 17 reviews.
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times gave the film two out of four stars and said, "'Texas Killing Fields' begins along the lines of a police procedural and might have been perfectly absorbing if it had played by the rules: strict logic, attention to detail, reference to technical police work. Unfortunately, the movie often seems to stray from such discipline." Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times commented, "...like the Texas City killer's plans, something's gone terribly wrong." On a more lenient note, James Mottram of GamesRadar said, "Mann Jr. shows plenty of promise in a film that doesn’t tarnish the family name. But hindered by niggling flaws, it hardly revolutionises an over-saturated genre."
