review for The Spreading Ground on AllMovie

Director Derek Vanlint has gone for atmosphere here, using arty edits and a languid music score to unravel a thriller that is more sickening than thrilling. The child abduction scenes and the haunting images inside the killer's head are uncomfortably long and detailed -- anyone with children will be repulsed. Worse yet, the entire mystery turns on a coincidence -- in this case involving a midget pickpocket dressed like a baby (don't ask) -- one of the cheapest ways for a storyteller to get out of a dead end. Dennis Hopper shows once again that he can be convincing despite tepid support from Toronto's ensemble of ever-ready B-movie actors. Casting Hopper with Apocalypse Now co-star Frederic Forrest is intriguing but not novel -- they worked together in the Hopper-directed Chasers with far more interesting results.