To maintain their heritage, more than eighty percent of small family farmers in the United States require supplemental income. The forecast is so bleak, that without the additional revenue, many farms lose money each year. As cattle farmers based in southeastern Ohio, John and Mike Murphy are no exception to the foreboding trend. To supplement the money they make through cattle sales, the brothers have hopped on the agritourism bandwagon by crafting an annual event they call the Field of Screams.

The Field of Screams is a haunted attraction the Murphy brothers host on their farm in Torch, Ohio. In the span of a decade, the nightmare experience has grown in reputation. What began as a makeshift family endeavor - that could only draw two patrons on its first night - has evolved into a thriving Halloween themed event that attracts thousands of customers every weekend in October.

In my first interview with John Murphy, I had asked about the motivation for the Field of Screams. After John processed what I thought had been an innocuous question, he requested I stop recording. I obliged as John left his seat to sob into his wife’s arms. The couple shared a private moment, and in their tears, consoled one another through mutual recollection. After a few minutes of cathartic healing between husband and wife, John had collected himself. He returned to his seat and said, “I apologize, I did not expect that to happen.”

The Murphy brothers’ determination in preserving their family cattle farm is full of tragic pathos, but their story is one of many in a precarious climate for American agrarian life. Herculean obstacles have become the status quo for so many families across the United States as farmers ceaselessly confront dire questions. Will this farm ever make money again? Who will take over the farm when I pass away? Is the Sisyphean effort worth the physical, emotional, and financial toll? John himself confessed, “I do not think I would be talking to you right now if we did not have the Field of Screams.”

This documentary tells two stories: the first records John and Mike Murphy’s struggles and successes over the past decade, and the second chronicles the rise and fall of the town in which they live. The narrative halves are symbiotic, and if one story were to eclipse the other, the film would fail to be understood. The Murphy brothers think of themselves as a stitch in a greater tapestry of farmers who came before them who had shared a common dream of living off the land. When Torch was established 1836, ninety percent of Americans enjoyed an agrarian life. Today, less than one percent of the population can sustain life on a farm. The pastoral ideal has all but atrophied in the present day, and if the word were not associated with a certain brand of politics that further relegates rural America, this film can be viewed as an elegy to that dream.