Dark Harvest Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Every Halloween the boys in a small town must kill a supernatural creature before midnight or else a great calamity will befall everyone.

Review: "Dark Harvest" is the kind of movie that has a cool premise and fantastic visuals--invoking vibes of "The Hunger Games" meets "Lord of the Flies." Unfortunately, this is also the kind of story that only works if you don't think about the internal logistics of the universe. The sheer, unbridled levels of shenanigans to the Swiss-cheese plot is going to cause an aneurysm for a lot of viewers. Despite the flaws, I can see this becoming something of a cult classic as the years roll by especially considering it was based on an acclaimed book. In this instance, I didn't read the book so, perhaps, answers were provided in that iteration?

What works? The intrigue behind this Sawtooth Jack character that the boys have to kill each year is captivating. I like the effects and looks of the creature, but the twist regarding his identity is pretty clear if you understand that this genre is young adult all the way; and believe me, that YA tone is dripping from every scene for better or worse. Regardless, the pacing is on point, the order in which characters died genuinely surprised me, and the actors are decent enough. The best parts for me were the visuals and cinematography--that Halloween-vibe was captured respectably well. Overall, there is a lot to love and appreciate within the production, design, and aesthetics.

So what isn't working? We get so little backstory and motivation for everything that it becomes mindless. How or why did anything like this even begin? To grow some damn corn?! Trust me, you don't need supernatural rituals to do that. There are hints of this almost cult-like group controlling the town, but even if they literally used magic to create this ritual, how does anything work on a day to day basis? They act like this town is isolated from the world yet they are fully stocked with Coke, candy, and whatever essential food and supplies you'd find anywhere. I'm not going to list the--no exaggeration--hundreds of questions I could ask about the hows and whys of it all. There are things like what stops anyone from leaving on foot or going postal, so to speak, or any kind of nonsense like why reward Corvettes and structure the town in a poor/rich dynamic when they're seemingly using magic or supernatural means to bring them fortune? I mean, you honestly want me to believe one cop and a farmer are literally all that stands between this ritual coming undone every year?! Look, I've watched God knows how many movies, and have reviewed getting close to 900 on this blog, but few films have left me with as many questions as this one. It hurts--BIG TIME--the viewing experience unless you shut off your brain as they say.

I truly want to like this movie, and I still do for the most part, but it's hard to ignore a story failing this hard at suspension of disbelief. The rules of this reality exist solely because the writer makes it so but not due to their storytelling abilities. On one hand, the production side of things is above average and great at times. Likewise the basic premise is fun and engaging in its presentation, keeping you intrigued throughout. On the other hand, if you've read enough of my reviews you know how annoyed I am with stories that waste their potential, and this is one of the worst offenders. I'd still recommend this film to anyone curious from the premise alone, but you must temper your expectations substantially.

Notable Moment: The opening sequence and narration. The tone and style is set extremely well even if the film itself cannot maintain that air of mystery.

Final Rating 5.5/10