When I run across a film pummeled with one scathing review after another, I have to see it -- that's just what we bad horror film addicts do. When you actually have people questioning why Lions Gate, a well-established purveyor of the worst films modern horror has to offer, would actually choose to distribute a film, the possibilities are almost mind-boggling. Could Dark Fields possibly be the worst film ever made? The answer, in my opinion, is no. I've lived to tell about several no-budget horror films worse than this one. Still, there's no getting around the fact that this film is pretty bloody awful -- and not in a "so bad it's good" way.

Writer/director Al Randall fails to instill the slightest trace of creativity or originality in this film. Indeed, the plot is about as stereotypical and derivative as they come -- a group of teenagers, stranded in the middle of nowhere long after sunset, end up fighting for their lives against a nondescript psychotic killer. After running out of gas on their way to a concert, one of the teens heads off to a nearby farmhouse for help. When he fails to return, the others head out to look for him. Except for the presence of farm animals in the barn, the adjacent farm appears to be completely deserted -- in fact, it looks like no one has been there in decades. That doesn't stop the gang from searching the abandoned house top to bottom -- including the dank dirt-floor cellar -- and then moving on to the giant barn. Finally, after an eternity, our killer finally shows up, at which point the film goes on complete slasher film auto-pilot.

Throughout their ordeal, the kids make one stupid decision after another (and the same could be said of the filmmakers because goofs abound in the film -- a visible boom mike, visible shadows of crew members, the detectable presence of a car every now and again in the background of this supposedly deserted setting, etc.). Their attempts to hide -- usually in the place the killer is sure to enter next -- are almost laughable, as all the noise they make in addition to all the lights from the torches they're always waving about guarantee that just about anyone apart from Helen Keller could easily follow their every move.

The film's biggest problems, though, are the acting and the script. Even if these weren't young and inexperienced actors being told to do everything over the top in an attempt to "Americanize" the film, there's no hope for a script that apparently relies as much on improvisation as terribly written dialogue.

Jenna Scott is pretty hot in her low-riding jeans, while Lindsay Dell is pretty good at screaming -- but that's about all this film has going for it. Despite using an actual dilapidated farm property for its setting, which I wouldn't even want to enter by the light of day, Dark Fields never generates a single bit of atmosphere. It's not the least bit scary at any moment, which is pretty much the kiss of death for any slasher film.

I have to give props to any filmmakers, amateur or professional, who go out and fulfill their dream of making a horror movie. (After all, what horror fan wouldn't jump at the chance of putting his/her personal stamp on a blood-drenched frenzy of gory goodness?) Despite all the want-to in the world, though, some of those films are just abysmal failures -- and Dark Fields definitely falls in that category.