TV Reviews : ‘Lightning Field’ Is No ‘Rosemary’s Baby’

First Nancy McKeon learned the facts of life. Now, cast as a mysteriously persecuted pregnant woman, she gets to learn the facts of devil-worshiping, dagger-wielding, baby-stealing, south-of-the-border fertility cults in “Lightning Field,” an extremely poor excuse for a TV movie airing at 9 tonight on cable’s USA Network.

“Rosemary’s Baby” it’s not. McKeon, as a Southwestern housewife having an onslaught of psychic visions late into her third term, turns out to be experiencing some sort of synchronicity with an equally psychic but not nearly so nice high priestess in a Latin American village. Too much peyote before bedtime for our expectant friend? No, it turns out that the baby-to-be is an object of veneration and possible human sacrifice for the distant tribe, which is suffering from generational sterility that has something to do with McKeon’s own family ties.

The closest thing to a surprise in this stupefying walk-through of a telepic is the somewhat anachronistic portrayal of anonymously Luciferian Latinos at this late, post-multiculturalist date. One press release identifies the cult as South American, while an accompanying plot synopsis contradictorily puts the source of the voodoo action in Central America. Needless to add, wherever the devil is set, “Lightning Field” won’t be winning any Golden Eagle Awards from Nosotros.