Strange Harvest

As of this writing there are currently two very good scary movies out right now. Weapons and this little known movie that had good word of mouth sparking my interest.

Strange Harvest and Weapons are well worth your time. Both are scary but where Weapons is the larger budget, mainstream movie, Strange Harvest is equally if not slightly more intriguing.

This one plays out like a "mockumentary" creepy little hidden gem. The two detective characters here are convincing enough with a formidable hidden villain that quite honestly had me uneasy and freaked out. No spoilers here but just a good time to throw your money at. Stick around for the end credits after a terrific third act that will stay with you for a minute.

This mockumentary gave me the creeps beyond creeps. This film was so detailed and elaborate that it made my skin crawl. The crime scenes shown in this film were so vile and disturbing that this film will leave you feeling uneasy and looking over your shoulder. This film blends horror with true crime, creating a chilling experience.

True-crime programs on TV wish they could be this good.

Like Fenómeno siniestro (2011) before it, Strange Harvest dissects a type of TV program and creates an imitation even better than the original. This is El silencio de los inocentes (1991) as an episode of Forensic Files (1996), a sinister episode of La ley y el orden (1990) taken to its horrific logical extreme.

I saw Strange Harvest at the Nevermore Film Festival. It's a simple, low budget portrayal of a straightforward premise (at least until the end), yet masterfully executed. Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple are quite believable as average suburban police detectives pursuing what they uncover to be an extraordinary crime spree. By telling the story in chronological order, the audience knows what the detectives knew at the time and share their confusion in trying to make sense of the crimes, the lack of evidence, and their frustration in trying to identify the perpetrator and track him down because he disappears like a ghost. Each crime is different, and one in particular in a swimming pool is as diabolical as the traps in the Juego macabro (2004) movies.

El proyecto de la bruja de Blair (1999), the mother of all found footage films, used its documentary film style to seem totally real. Strange Harvest creates a similar fake reality that makes the audience feel like they're learning about an incident that really happened. The story's simplicity and its streamlined portrayal make it all the more convincing. I've watched a lot of big budget horror movies that aren't nearly as compelling as Strange Harvest.

There's an extra scene after the credits, be sure to stay for that.

"Strange Harvest" is a mockumentary that follows two San Bernardino police officers and their decades-long investigation into the case of "Mr. Shiny," a brutal serial killer whose sadistic crimes come to take on occult-like features.

Largely consisting of interviews with the officers, witnesses, and experts involving in the various crimes, "Strange Harvest" very much represents a "Dateline" or "20/20" true crime documentary, albeit a much more graphic and, eventually, fantastical one. Like many of its type, the film plays under the guise of being a "true story," a conceit that we know is a gimmick, but one that I will at least accept for entertainment's sake.

What this film excels it as it capturing the tone and feel of the true crime documentaries that litter nighttime television and major streaming services. From the editing, to the interview formats, to the police and surveillance footage, "Strange Harvest" is an admirable facsimile. The performances and dialogue are also, of the most part, reasonable effective and naturalistic enough to provide functional storytelling; with a film like this, I sometimes find it difficult to suspend my disbelief, but I can say that it came just about as close to "real"-feeling as any other mockumentary I've seen.

"Strange Harvest" owes a lot to films like "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" and the crimes profiled have echoes of "Seven" as well as footnotes referencing things like the Zodiac Killer. For true crime buffs, the film is a fairly entertaining odyssey through an outrageous series of murders--almost so outrageous that it at times stretches credulity--but the pacing and presentation manage to hold it together nonetheless.

The graphic photographs and footage scattered throughout are at times bone-chilling, as are the sequences in which we see the killer either in still image or video. As the film ramps up toward its conclusion, things get admittedly hokier and cosmic, with an H. P. Lovecraft bent to the crimes. Unfortunately, none of this totally gels, and the implications get a bit too silly for their own good.

Even still, I feel "Strange Harvest" is worth seeking out if you are a true crime documentary devotee or enjoy the mockumentary format. It may not revolutionize the genre, but it is a formidable indie film with a number of chilling moments, and it recreates the true crime documentary genre with an admirable amount of realism (despite the more fantastical wiring revealed to be underneath the floorboards). 6/10.

The trailer made this look like it was a hardcore, disturbing horror film. It was not. It's all framed within a fake true crime episode and we truly don't get to see much of the action, more so we have it described to us. Color me disappointed, but not entirely.

I will give the film props. It does the true crime bit pretty well. The acting is mostly good, there's a certain authenticity that's upheld throughout. They did a fine job of making this fake mocumentary look as real as possible. I appreciated that.

On the flipside, the film delivers some great unintentional comedy along the way. Things definitely intended to be scary made my whole theater crack up at how silly it was and some of the dialog was outright bad. Not a deal breaker though.

The story also becomes a snoozer about two thirds of the way through. For a film that's only about 90 or so minutes long, that's not great. It felt like the story really goes nowhere at the end. I would elaborate but spoilers.

Overall, I couldn't recommend spending money on it, but it wasn't the worst thing I've seen and it was creative on a few fronts. With some tighter writing and editing, I'm positive they could come out with a sequel to this and it would be a good flick. As it stands though, the film was just ok for me.

2.5 sacrifices out of 5.