Elizabeth Harvest

I watched this movie last night and I have to say it is growing on me. The more I think about it, the more I like it. I certainly agree it is slow. It's intentionally slow, but excessively so. My wife gave up on it because of this. After making it through the whole movie, here is what I like:

It has some plot twists that are unexpected, but also make sense in the context of the movie. They don't come out of nowhere and I like the backstory the twists add.

The acting, especially by the lead actress, is great. I really thought she brought Elizabeth to life.

The brooding cinematography set the stage for the confined nature of the film. It was not excessively depressing though.

Overall, not a perfect movie, but I liked it a lot.

How anyone can give this film less than a 4 is unbelievable? I was going to give it a 6 but i am giving it a 7 to make up for the stupid low ratings. This film kept me intrigued and was very entertaining...it has been done before but i still enjoyed it. When people are scoring films like The Meg a 10 and giving a film like this a 1....it is hard to take this site seriously. I know everyone can not have the same taste in films...but come on people! This film was not brilliant but it was well worth a watch and was above average

"Elizabeth Harvest" is an intricate indie thriller which does a great job at building up suspense and unease throughout.

We are introduced to Elizabeth (Abbey Lee) a beautiful new bride, being taken to her new high tech home by husband Henry (Ciaran Hinds). She meets the housekeeper, uptight Claire (Carla Gugino) and the blind, flower picker Oliver (Matthew Beard). As she tours the grand home, one room in particular catches her eye to which Henry forbids her from ever entering. Shocking discoveries and dark truths are what lies past the frosted glass door, but will Elizabeth enter?

Abbey Lee has had small bit parts throughout the past few years and so I was surprised at how great she was in the movie, although the British accent falters somewhat (she's Australian), she maintains our interest as the lead character. The rest of the performers are all on fine form too.

Quite a few twists and revaluations happen quick and fast, and these kick off pretty quickly actually (after the first 30 minutes). Overall, I'd recommend this indie thriller.

So this is something of a mixed bag: the girl playing Elizabeth herself is a model not an actress and this is noticeable right from the beginning: she looks pleasant enough standing still but she moves at all times like she's on a catwalk and tends to blow the illusion of whatever scene she's in whenever she starts to talk.

As the movie progresses though, and the first reveal occurs, this starts to seem like it might actually work to the story's advantage. There was another well-known film three years back which I won't mention for fear of spoiling, but it covers some of the same ground and takes one to a similar place but this one doesn't raise any of the same questions or emotional responses, which makes it a much less worthwhile experience.

Ciarán Hinds is good as always, along with Carla Gugino, but Matthew Beard is noticably weakest of all. On top of this there is some odd, clumsy editing, with too many scenes just awkwardly fading to black and slowing down the momentum.

So the film really has one foot in compelling sci-fi and another in bad B-movie drama/ TV soap opera. It's a good premise, though not really original or examined enough to feel groundbreaking, revelatory or even particularly memorable, and after the first twist there's no real point to the story and no interesting place for it to go. It's definitely watchable but largely pointless, and you'll never choose to watch it again.

I am not sure why this movie has received such a low IMDB rating. I got hooked from the very first scene and since then it was a quite intense ride indeed. There was never a moment I felt bored. I especially found cinematography, editing, and score really fascinating. Setting of the movie in an isolated location only adds to the intrigue of the story. Beautifully done thriller all around.