''Texas Killing Fields'' (also known as ''The Fields'') is a 2011 American

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Ami Canaan Mann Ami Canaan Mann is a British-born American film director, television director and television writer. Career Mann has worked as a television and film writer since writing the ''NYPD Blue'' episode "Tea and Sympathy" in 2000. She has won three aw ...

and starring

Sam Worthington Samuel Henry John Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an Australian actor. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in ''Avatar'' and its sequel, ''Avatar: The Way of Water''; Marcus Wright in ''Terminator Salvation'', and Perseus in '' Clash o ...

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Jeffrey Dean Morgan (born April 22, 1966) is an American actor of television and film, best known for playing the character Negan in the AMC horror drama series '' The Walking Dead'' (2016–2022), for which he has received critical acclaim. He ...

Jessica Chastain Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and producer. Known for primarily starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. ''Time'' ...

and

Chloë Grace Moretz Chloë Grace Moretz (; born February 10, 1997) is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including four MTV Movie & TV Awards, two People's Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and two Young Artist Awards. She began actin ...

. It competed in the

68th Venice International Film Festival The 68th annual Venice International Film Festival was held in Venice, Italy between 31 August and 10 September 2011. American film director Darren Aronofsky was announced as the Head of the Jury. American actor and film director Al Pacino was p ...

. Several killings occur along Houston's

I-45 Interstate 45 (I-45) is a major Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Texas. While most Interstate routes which have numbers ending in "5" are cross-country north–south routes, I-45 is comparatively short, with the ...

corridor between Houston and Galveston, in and around an area known as "

the Killing Fields A killing field is a concept in military science. Killing field may also refer to: * Killing Fields, a number of sites in Cambodia where collectively more than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of ...

". The film's screenplay was loosely inspired by true events surrounding the murders of women kidnapped from cities spread along 30-plus miles of the

corridor and dumped in many areas, including various

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

s surrounding the oil fields of

Texas City Texas City is a city in Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and pe ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. While in real life there have been several itinerant serial killers involved over the years, the film focuses on specific local Texas City suspects.

Plot

Souder, a homicide detective in a small Texan town, and his partner, transplanted New York City cop Detective Heigh, track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims' mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call 'The Killing Fields'. Though the swampland crime scenes are outside their jurisdiction, Detective Heigh is unable to turn his back on solving the gruesome murders. Despite his partner's warnings, he sets out to investigate the crimes. Before long, the killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crime scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When familiar local girl Anne goes missing, the detectives find themselves racing against time to catch the killer and save the young girl's life.

Cast

as Detective Mike Souder *

as Detective Brian Heigh *

as Detective Pam Stall *

as Little Anne Sliger *

Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series ''Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film ro ...

as Rule * Jon Eyez as Levon *

Annabeth Gish Anne Elizabeth "Annabeth" Gish (born March 13, 1971) is an American actress. She has played roles in films ''Shag'', ''Hiding Out'', '' Mystic Pizza'', ''SLC Punk!'', ''The Last Supper'' and ''Double Jeopardy''. On television, she played Special ...

as Gwen Heigh *

Sheryl Lee Sheryl Lynn Lee (born April 22, 1967) is a German-born American film, stage, and television actress. After studying acting in college, Lee relocated to Seattle, Washington to work in theater, where she was cast by David Lynch as Laura Palmer and ...

as Lucie Sliger *

Stephen Graham Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...

as Rhino * James Hébert as Eugene Sliger * Deneen Tyler as Lady Worm * Sean Michael Cunningham as Sean Heigh * Leanne Cochran as Lila * Tony Bentley as Capt. Bender * Holly Ladnier as Emergency Call Director *

Kirk Bovill Kirk Bovill (born January 17, 1961) is an American actor, writer, voice-over artist and producer. His film credits include ''Vice'', ''20th Century Women'', ''Free State of Jones'', '' Get on Up'', ''Contraband'', ''Texas Killing Fields'', ''Whi ...

as Boyfriend

Production

The film was originally going to be directed by

Danny Boyle Daniel Francis Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English director and producer. He is known for his work on films including ''Shallow Grave'', '' Trainspotting'' and its sequel ''T2 Trainspotting'', '' The Beach'', '' 28 Days Later'', '' Su ...

before he left the project and was replaced by

, daughter of director

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...

, 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.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was scored by Dickon Hinchliffe (formerly of

Tindersticks Tindersticks are an English alternative rock band formed in Nottingham in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples embarked on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006 and more permanently the following year. Th ...

) except for three tracks credited to The Americans.

Reception

''Texas Killing Fields'' received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Review aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a score of 37% based on 46 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 Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of ''

The Chicago Sun Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide v ...

'' 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 The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' commented that "like the Texas City killer's plans, something's gone terribly wrong" with the film. On a more lenient note, James Mottram of ''

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...

'' wrote: "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."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Texas Killing Fields 2011 films 2011 crime films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American mystery films American serial killer films Films about missing people Films directed by Ami Canaan Mann Films produced by Michael Mann Films set in Texas Films shot in Louisiana QED International films