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[tab title="Movie Review"]
Low-grade exploitation – shot on VHS – is a damn funny thing to sit back and review. You pretty much know what to expect. Shoddy SOV quality, undisciplined filmmaking, blurry images, static shots, and – as this one features murderous scarecrows on the loose across desert plains – some really random silliness. You know that so-bad-it’s-good phrase that some don’t believe in? Sometimes, as is the case with this fresh DVD release of Dark Harvest from Intervision, the term really does apply.
But it's not all bad. Dark Harvest, especially in its first 10 minutes, has many successes few other films can boast about. The desert location is engaging and, as it’s certainly not your typical surrounding for scarecrow sightings, also quite oddly unsettling. It also gets right down to the nitty gritty point. The first female ogled by the camera quickly tosses off her top in favor of a much cooler shirt. Flesh for fantasy. Let the killing begin! Enter the scarecrows and, yeah, they’re pretty pissed about these two visitors. Lost tourists can be oh so very annoying.
Written and directed by James I. Nicholson, Dark Harvest has a couple of good make-up jobs and a nice atmospheric creep in its crawl, but that doesn’t exactly mean you’ll make it through its own particular sway. It takes a hell of a lot of ENDLESS patience and regular viewing of b-movies to outlast this 90-minute release. Although, I’m glad I did as the best kill scene is indeed saved for the very last.
Dark Harvest, with cheesy synths and pan flutes and acoustic guitars as its soundtrack, is the horror story of how Alex (Cooper Anderson) leads a bunch of big city types – Frank (Dan Weiss), Melissa (Patti Negri, Ninja Academy and currently a psychic medium), Tom (David Kramer, Chopping Block), Lori (Debbie O'Der), roomies Mary Anne (Jamee Natella) and Sandy (Tina Moore), and BFFs Jude (Tracy Vivat) and Kim (Dawn DeNoon) – on a nature trail to Hell.
Of course, everything goes wrong on this camping trip and most would rather fuck each other than get busy surviving. But, at least to me, much of this flick feels oh so very right in that Troll 2 kind of way. This SOV flick comes highly recommended if you are a fan of Fred Olen Ray’s output or think that The Alien Factor is a gift to mankind.
Throughout the entire “stuffed” murders by these scarecrows, the acting is amateurish and hokey. The whole movie - even at its most basic of levels - is largely uneven and probably goes on a good 40 minutes past its prime, too. This is opportunist filmmaking at its worst – including the accidental discovery of a maggot-ridden dead dog and its eventual inclusion in the movie – and it reveals its weaknesses in many overacted scenes.
The cast, when they aren’t busy shedding their clothes, can barely be heard over the wind beating up against the camcorder’s microphone. It is both tedious and quite amusing. Much of Dark Harvest reminds me of the movies I used to make…when I was 13 years old...which might explain why I had so much fun with it.
Also included with this twofer DVD release from Intervision is Escapes with Vincent Price from 1986. It's not the greatest of anthologized horror flicks. This one features short tales that range from good to just plain weird, with each tale being more lame than the previous one. This title is for Price fanatics only, but offered here with Dark Harvest, it doesn’t seem that out of place.
Killer kitsch! What could go wrong?!
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[tab title="DVD Review"]
DVD Details:
Home Video Distributor: Severin
Available on Blu-ray - May 30, 2017
Screen Formats:
Subtitles: English
Audio:
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single-disc set
Region Encoding: Region A
Presented by Intervision, the 1.33:1 full screen image is as pretty shitty as you can imagine. Colors are never bright. The contrast is never clear and the picture is one big ball of fuzzed out pixels. Nothing is crisp and the black levels bleed like the fake blood flicked at the screen in all the death scenes. The sound is presented in an effective Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack. Seeing as how this is the second release from Intervision, more will probably be on the way.
Supplements:
Commentary:
-
None. Bummer.
Special Features:
With one interview done on video and the other by SKYPE, the NEW supplemental items are cool and fall directly in line with the video presentation of the rest of the movie.
- Patti Negri Remembers Dark Harvest
- Dan Weiss Remembers Dark Harvest Via Video Skype
- Distributor Tom Naygrow on David Steensland, Writer/Director of ESCAPES
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