Harvest of Fear

Clichés galore here: squad car 66 (where's the third 6?) Devil's Lake, etc. Killings took place 20 years ago, killings begin again on the anniversary, for yet another cliché.

What could go wrong at costume party held soon after after two killings, a party held by friends of the deceased? It obviously didn't take them long to mourn their friends' deaths. Killer shows up at party, no one suspects anything is amiss, as it is a costume party. Cops named Barker (Clive?) and Jim (John?) Carpenter investigate. They even go to the town drunk to get answers. Killer almost looks like he is wearing a burlap sack on his head, carrying a Rambo knife. Nonsensical ending, killer is retroactively inserted into storyline.

My critique is admittedly disjointed and fragmented, but that is because the movie is so forgettable that I can hardly remember anything more about it, other than the fact that I was bored to tears by it.

In the intro a couple is out in the woods when a masked killer appears and kills them.

Billy arrives in the small town of Devil's Lake to do his internship in forensics(?). He's following the same path of his father, who did the same. He meets the lovely coroner office manager and they connect immediately. But her ex is a deputy sheriff and has a hard time letting go. More killings ensue. It's the yearly harvest festival and college kids flock to the town to party. We meet some of these kids as they meet their demise at the hands of the masked killer.

The town's sheriff is more interested in keeping the lid on things and is clueless about any possible suspects. He talks to some old townspeople who give some obscure hints. 20 years ago the town was in the same situation with a serial killer on the loose. They caught the guy who killed himself before trial. But these guys at least have their doubts whether he was the right guy.

Killings continue and Billy and the girl have to start investigating on their own. There's also a retired cop who has his suspicions. There are a couple of candidates for killer and a twist at the end.

Harvest of Fear looks, feels, and sounds like an 80s movie. But for the tiny budget it's actually alright. There's no shortage of problems. There is really no main character. Billy starts of as the main character but then vanishes for a good part of the movie and re-appears at the end. There's not any character development either. The only thing that develops is the relationship between Billy and the girl. For a whodunnit there's a complete absence of possible killers, of sinister or mysterious characters. That movie starts out with some great nudity and even though it deals with partying college students doesn't feature any additional nudity. Overall it's on OK movie if you know what you're getting yourself into and don't expect some masterpiece.

I live up in the Portland metro area and heard about the filming so I was waiting to hear about it when it was showing locally. Sure enough I had the chance to see it and I thought it was pretty well done for a low budget film. Special effects were not too bad at all. My favorite character (even though his part was not that big) was that creepy guy who played the son, he was whittling on the porch. I thought he was guilty for sure. Nevertheless I thought he kind of stole the show. I have a knack for spotting undiscovered talent and can see big things on the horizon for him. I've predicted the success of many different actors having spotted them early in their careers.

I have to say that there is one redeeming speck in regards to this "film". It firmly establishes the bottom of the barrel. Now filmmakers know what to aim above when making a movie. Other than that I regret watching this debacle. What shameless abandon the making of this "film" was. What a waste of $100,000 (that's right folks, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars). This "film" reminds me of that "Adult Video Awards" show in which of group of "industrial prostitutes" stand up a praise themselves, believing that they are real actors, actresses and filmmakers. Ironic then how I've watched blue movies with better acting, directing and writing. I also found it funny that the Executive Producer, Justin Ament, just had to be in the "movie". He plays Deputy Jake Barker. I'm sure his "acting" career has taken off... Ted Pfiffer, the writer, has a part. He no doubt was wallowing in the clichéd glory he created. It should be noted that Carrie Finklea has a lead role in the movie. You might remember her from Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant'. Though I'm not too sure that she'll want to write this film on her resume. And I'm not sure which is a more depressing point; money was spent to make this film or people are going to watch it. Along with 'Torque', 'Godsend' and 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow', one of the worst films, IF NOT THE WORST FILM, of 2004.

Harvest of Fear is not a good movie but any stretch of the imagination but it, judging from what has been said about it from the reviews and from a lot of my friends how bad it was, could have been far worse.

It doesn't look too bad, in fact the production values were the best thing about it. The scenery is striking and have a good atmosphere and while reminiscent of the 80s Harvest of Fear is nicely lit and the photography while not exceptional is well above average(especially for low-budget slasher movies). Some of the music is decent and actually fits in quite well within the movie, and the sound mixing is clearer and less muddied than most slasher movies.

Harvest of Fear does have too much wrong with it. While some of the music is decent, there are times where it is used in too obvious a way, especially in the build up to the death scenes, when the soundtrack swells and crescendos it doesn't take rocket science to know that something bad is going to happen. The death scenes themselves were disappointing, far too repetitive and lacking in any kind of imagination, furthermore the over-obviousness of the soundtrack kills any suspense they could have had. Harvest of Fear's script is very clunky, the dialogue is enough to make your eyes roll so much they get stuck eventually while it is also ridden with clichés and very, very rarely makes sense. Story-wise Harvest of Fear is as unimaginative and atmosphere-less as you can possibly got. The more derivative it got, and it did so almost immediately after the beginning scene, the less intriguing it got, and the tension and scare factors are even less than that. The characters are one-note throughout, including the killer, and the acting is not much better, most of the acting in the secondary roles are laughably bad actually.

All in all, very lame and not a good movie at all but Harvest of Fear could have been much worse than it turned out to be. 3/10 Bethany Cox