The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm (2011)

Movie Info

Welcome to the happy world of Fox Hollow Farm

On July 3, 1996, in Grand Bend, Ontario, the body of Herb Baumeister was found in Pinery Provincial Park.  With his death a series of killing ended and the real mystery began.  Baumeister was the suspect in the murder of a number of men and accused of burying their bodies on his property in Westfield, Indiana.  Since his death, the home has had a reputation for hauntings, and now, paranormal investigators are going to the home to determine if these reports have validity.

Directed by Dan T. Hall, The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm is a documentary exploring a possibly haunted farm in Westfield, Indiana which was the site of a number of murders.  The film was released in Indianapolis in local theaters, but also has been released on DVD and is available for streaming.

The crime scene…

This is a strange movie for me to watch in that it all happened about ten miles from where I was living at the time and grew up.  I can remember watching the news reports of the events (which they sample in the film) and also seeing a Bill Kurtis investigation on the murders on A&E.  Now, a number of years later, I also find myself working with some of the reporters and people involved in the reports, and it is a bit odd to watch it played out in movie form.

I have always been surprised that more hasn’t been done on Herb Baumeister since due to his suicide (or possible murder as indicated in this documentary), police will never know what really happened or the number of victims.  It is believed that he could have as many as twenty victims and possibly more depending if he could ever officially be linked to the killings along I-70 which had a similar M.O.

Indoor pool where investigators think many of the murders took place

The problem with this film is that it is not a documentary of the case.  While the Baumeister case is creepy, this turns from a documentary about the already scary murders into a bad episode of Ghost Hunters filled with weird edits and desperate attempts to make this ordinary looking house seem haunted.  From a bunch of low-rent investigators (one even admits to “not having done it long” and is sad she isn’t more open to the experience), you get horrible audio that is so inconclusive that you feel like you wasted the last half of the documentary.

It is this weak production value that really hinders the film.  The film has overlapping audio which almost sound like more of mistake than an artistic decision, and they constantly try to slow or speed-up audio to make it sound more sinister.  The movie also goes to almost entirely nightvision for the last part of the film…which I’ve never understood.  If you are dead and a ghost, why does it matter if it is light or dark?  Time of day shouldn’t matter if ghosts have an actual presence since humans apply darkness to the unknown rather than there actually being any scientific basis.

Herb Baumeister’s home from the air

The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm is a misfire of a great documentary.  The creators missed the real source and that is the story, not the bad paranormal investigation that seems like a cheaper version of a “real” paranormal investigators show.  Horror is horror, and a documentary about a serial killer is scarier than a bunch of people claiming to have seen something which is not on camera.  For a better telling of the Baumeister case, check out the A&E special The Secret Life of a Serial Killer.