Starring Isacco Salvi, Martina Capaccioli, Marco Cevoli, and Marcello Castiglioni. Written by Samuele Breschi and Isacco Salvi. Directed by Samuele Breschi. Produced by Luca Boni, Marco Ristori, Valentina Cau and Mario Niccolò Messina.

A group of friends perform a ritual, reciting the words, “Who will scare the crows away.” After they do this, and before the ritual can be finished, a stranger enters the house, drags one of the friends, David (Salvi), outside – and then the stranger cuts his own palm, allowing the blood to spill onto David’s face. From then on, matters only get worse for the group, and it transpires that a creature will hunt them down until only one of them is left alive…

This US film, shot in Italy, is far from perfect, but has some well-done passages, the musical score is very good in places, and there’s enough intrigue in the story to ensure viewer interest is maintained.

MAN IN THE FIELDS is director Samuele Breschi’s debut movie and, despite the uneven acting (the cast members all seem to be Italians speaking English, with some being more accomplished thespians than others), it’s a good first effort.

One of the highlights of the film is the pagan-god-in-human-form creature that David turns into; it is a damn cool-looking skull-headed creature! It rips off the skin of David’s girlfriend like it’s a bloody onesie (the flayed skin still has its scalp attached)! The creature then drapes the girlfriend’s skin around its shoulders like a pashmina! 

The action scenes could’ve done with being shot with a bit more panache, but the film remains enjoyable nonetheless, thanks to the skull-headed man-creature and the effort that the filmmakers put into creating it; its face has muscles and eyes located beneath the bone of its animal skull-like head. It’s a pretty ace beastie.

The mythos surrounding the events taking place in the movie revolves around two figures; the ‘Man in the Fields’ (who is the stranger we saw earlier, who is supposedly one of the ‘first men’) and ‘Xipe-Totec’ (a dark deity known as Our Lord the Flayed), who is the god of agriculture and spring.

The ensuing plot sees an older dude, Jonathan (Castiglioni), joining the action. He is the survivor of the massacre of a family from years earlier, and he’s the one who supplies the others with details regarding the occult situation that they’ve become entangled in.

Breschi and co-writer Isacco Salvi make some dubious plot choices, such as having Rob (Cevoli), one of the surviving friends who has become a bit of a psycho, deciding that the best way to deal with the horrific events he’s witnessed is to go to a house party! Though I guess this story choice does allow for some slo-mo mass panic and carnage scenes at the party later on.

The movie is flawed, for sure, but it does deserve kudos for its attempt at creating an absorbing mythology that sees the spirit of the nature god Xipe-Totec (which possesses the body of its victims, who develop the signature skull-like head) linked to the Man in the Fields in an ongoing cycle of rebirth and slaughter; the Man in the Fields, it seems, triggers the physical manifestation of Xipe-Totec (remember how he dripped his blood on David) so that Xipe-Totec becomes flesh in the physical world, after which the Man decapitates the god-creature to ensure that he remains immortal.

Top marks for the use of practical effects.