We initially didn’t have very high expectations for “Texas Killing Fields,” but when the film landed an in competition slot at the Venice Film Festival our interest was piqued. Perhaps there was more than meets the eye to what seemed a pretty rote crime thriller. Well, our initial instincts seem to be spot on.
A fresh trailer has arrived and despite a pretty okay cast — Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chloe Moretz, Stephen Graham, Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke — the film seems to take a pretty good true life foundation and run it into the ground. The thriller revolves around a series of unsolved murders in League City, Texas, where 21 women were killed or have disappeared since 1971. What could have been a good “Zodiac“-esque procedural quickly gives way to car chases and vaulting over fences, with a couple of jump scare type shenanigans. We’ll let you decided about Worthington’s attempt at an accent, but there are just some things you can’t CGI. And is it just us or is Jeffrey Dean Morgan looking more and more like Javier Bardem with each passing day?
Still, maybe there is something the movie has going for it. Again, that competition slot in Venice is throwing us for a loop. Though maybe it has something to do with director Ami Canaan Mann sharing the surname with another noted director. Maybe. The film opens on October 7th. Trailer below. [Filmonic]