Harvest Lake

I have really dug some of Scott Schirmer's other movies/collaborations (Found, Plank Face, Headless, Space Babes From Outer Space, and to a lesser extent, The Bad Man). This one, not so much. Actually, I'm shocked there are some semi-rave reviews here. I will say this much about his movies, including Harvest Lake: They defy expectation. This is apparently his arthouse/sex/Cronenberg film.

The biggest issue I had with this movie is that it's underwritten. What in the hell was this about? Is everything just padding to get to the weird alien sex scene? Scenes (and characters) go entirely nowhere. Well, admittedly, whatever the scene, just leads to sex. If you're expecting another horror movie... you're wrong! I guess I can give this an extra star for rampant sexuality. And Ellie Church is always a highlight in whatever she's in. Yet, I was falling asleep a couple times.

A slow-moving, low-budget, erotic, Lovecraftian independent horror with arthouse pretensions, Harvest Lake is set in and around a still body of water deep in the woods, the perfect setting for eerie otherworldly action. Into this remote locale comes one young couple, Ben and Cat (Dan Nye and Tristan Risk), Cat's best friend Jennifer (Ellie Church), and Jennifer's gay pal Josh (Jason Crowe), who are spending the weekend partying together in a cabin. Joining in with the fun is Mark (Kevin Roach), a stranger that Cat met on the way to the cabin. As the friends relax and enjoy themselves, a strange supernatural presence slowly affects their behaviour, increasing their libidos and reducing their inhibitions.

While Harvest Lake is a technically well-made movie, with impressive cinematography, a brooding atmosphere and reasonable performances, it's hard to see who it is going to appeal to: if you're heterosexual, then the gay stuff can be disconcerting; similarly, if you're gay, then the straight sex will probably be a turn off; and if you're a horror fan looking to be scared or disturbed, then the lack of anything remotely scary or disturbing will prove very frustrating. Much of the film consists of scenes wherein the characters wander aimlessly round the woods or talk about sex, all of which is fairly dull. The ending, which fails to adequately explain matters, sees the friends encountering (and having sex with) a one-eyed creature that looks like a reject from Doctor Who circa the late-'70s, only with more goop, orifices, and protuberances.

2.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 3 for blonde babe Ellie Church, who deserves better.

Bad porn? the movie is neither what it suggest neither is it an erotic movie.I fail to understand the point of making this video? because it's not a movie, it doesn't deserve to be called a movie. i suggest watching other films than watching this and if you do, do it on fast forward, you won't miss a thing if you ignore the dialogue.

It was the synopsis of the movie and the fact that it was labeled as a horror movie that initially caught my attention. It seemed like the movie could have potential to be something interesting. It turned out that the keywords here were "could have"...

"Harvest Lake" turned out to be a sleazefest dressed in a horror wrapping. There was so much pointless nudity and focus on sex acts that the movie was almost a softcore porn flick. It was just too much, and director and writer Scott Schirmer could have opted for a much more neutral approach and a more subtle sexual approach, which would have proved for a much more adequate movie.

The acting in the movie was good, especially taking into consideration that the acting talents had very little to work with in terms of script and story.

The storyline, however, was every bit as mundane as it was generic and predictable. Actually, I will go as far as to claiming that the storylien was sort of pointless, because all that this movie was about was showing sexual depravity instilled upon the minds of the young people by the otherworldly being in the forest.

"Harvest Lake" had adequate special effects, mind you that there wasn't a lot of special effects. The creature in the forest was sort of interesting, but it was marred by having a very low budget appearance to it. So a few more dollars thrown after the special effects department would have done wonders for the movie.

What was the toughest part of the movie to get through was the incredibly slow pace that the storyline was presented in. It just trotted on in a very monotonous pace that really had no ups or downs.

I managed to sit through "Harvest Lake" to the very end, but I found my focus, attention and interest in the movie hard pressed many times throughout the course of the movie. I was hoping that the movie would pick up and become better as it went along, but that hope was in vain. My rating of "Harvest Lake" ends on a generous 3 out of 10 stars.

Soft core porn disguised as a horror film. A real snoozefest, that had me falling asleep. The entity that came from the abyss, who and what was it? The creature from the black lagoon distant cousin. I clapped in glee as it ended, because it was painful to watch. Slow and boring with no climactic ending. Five friends rolling around in lube, this movie made me feel like I was in one of those sleazy time square theaters from the 80s, I didn't need a shower though, i needed some good sleep. Please don't waste your time watching this film, you might get better joy watching paint dry. Trust me, I'm good at picking movies.