Devil's Harvest is one of two thematically similar films I just watched back to back (the other being Black Gate (aka The Darkening), 1995) that owe a strong debt to the classic "seaside haunted house films", ala Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), Lewis Allen's The Uninvited (1944) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz' The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). They both mix a lot of semi-Satanic mythology with their relatively more hyperactive, modernized styles. This was the good film of the two.
Daniel King (Chris John) is an artist who has just come back with his girlfriend, Laura Peters (Lara Clancy), to the small English village of Cornwall where he grew up. He was an orphan who was close to fellow orphan Mary Henson (Julie T. Wallace). Mary was fortunate to be adopted by a wealthy family. Daniel has had a much harder time of it, but Mary is letting him stay in an older house she owns, and she's just commissioned him to do a religious painting for the local church. From the beginning we sense (as does Laura) that there's something odd about Daniel and Mary's relationship, and there's something odd about the village folk, too--when Daniel and Laura stop in for a pint, they get the infamous An American Werewolf in London (1981) treatment. On top of all of this, it seems that the house just may be haunted, there is a local crazy priest wandering about, a local "evil legend", and Daniel has to run away with Mary to an exhibition, leaving Laura at home with Daniel's old pal Mike Taylor (David Snow), who may be just as fishy in his relationship to Laura as Daniel is with Mary.
That all sounds a bit too complicated maybe, but for me, at least, this was a superbly acted, relatively taut film, with a great mythological basis employing the little-referenced Philistine "fish deity" of Dagon. This gives the film a thematic connection to Stuart Gordon's Dagon (2001), which was based on the work of horror author H.P. Lovecraft. If you're familiar with Lovecraft or Dagon, they give Devil's Harvest deeper significance by association.
In fact, writer/director James Shanks seems quite fond of such intriguing, pithy thematic references, as they permeate the film. For example, the Cornwall setting connects Devil's Harvest to films such as Jacques Tourneur's The City Under the Sea (1965) and Hammer's The Plague of the Zombies (1966). These are tonal references, as well. Devil's Harvest has more of a late 1960s or 1970s Hammer feel than a contemporary feel--this could almost be an extended episode of Hammer's lamentably short-lived "Hammer House of Horror" television show (1980). If you've seen that, it's a good way to gauge if you're likely to enjoy Devil's Harvest. I loved "Hammer House of Horror".
For such a low budget film (estimated at £800,000), Devil's Harvest has remarkably impressive cinematography. Shanks employs helicopter shots, crane shots, consistently unique almost comic book-like angles, and a lot of beautifully photographed English countryside and village architecture. The film also has very good performances from its attractive, young cast--even more amazing considering that the two principals are so inexperienced. This is John's first film and Clancy's second.
Although some aspects of the story may seem less than perfect for some viewers because they'll seem a trifle clichéd or convoluted, Shanks keeps a relatively tight rein on a plot that could have easily become a mess in lesser hands, and he incorporates a number of very unusual, unexpected elements, including the nihilistic ending and nice doses of subtle humor. Like its 1940s haunted house by the sea precursors, Devil's Harvest's more Amityville Horror-ish moments tend to be understated. They're also often psychological and sometimes hallucinogenic.
There is a unique subtext possible where much of the film, including the horror material, is an exploration/representation of strained, twisted and interconnecting relationships between Daniel, Laura, Mary and Mike. On this reading, Devil's Harvest is an examination of how deceit and subversion affect romantic involvements.
