Dark Harvest (2023) Review
The long-delayed Dark Harvest — originally scheduled for September 24, 2021, before it got postponed to September 9, 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic — has finally seen the light of day. It marks the return of David Slade, whose last feature films included the choose-your-own-adventure interactive style Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and one of the segments for the horror anthology Nightmare Cinema, both of which were released in 2018.
Based on Norman Partridge’s 2006 Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novel of the same name, the story takes place in a sleepy Midwestern town where we learn there’s an annual Halloween ritual. A ritual that requires a group of hungry teenage boys to face a legendary scarecrow-like monster with a jack-o’-lantern head known as Sawtooth Jack. They have to catch and kill it before it reaches the town church by midnight. The winner who succeeds in the hunt will be awarded US$25,000 prize money and more importantly, a brand-new car to leave the cursed town for good.
In 1962, Jim Shephard (Britain Dalton) emerged as the winner and his victory motivated his younger brother, Richie (Casey Likes) to join the annual ritual the following year. Like his brother, he can’t wait to get out of town and on the subsequent night of the hunt, he teams up with Kelly Haines (E’myri Crutchfield) to hunt down the Sawtooth Jack. Kelly turns out to be just as desperate as he does, even though the rules forbid women to participate in the ritual whatsoever. But breaking the rules is the least of the problems as Richie soon discovers the dark truth about the ritual and Sawtooth Jack.
For the record, I didn’t read the novel so I’m going to judge this movie by its own merits. The premise boasts an interesting cross of Children of the Corn and Halloween with a shade of David Slade’s 30 Days of Night. The latter is particularly evident, given both of the stories revolve around the characters trapped in a town fighting against the monster(s). The movie explores the likes of teenage angst and bullying issues but it’s more of a hit-and-miss affair. There’s a hint of forbidden interracial romance between Richie and Kelly but Slade, working from Michael Gilio’s (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) adapted screenplay, chose to downplay the relationship subplot in favour of Richie’s eagerness to win the annual ritual and leave town.
The underlying premise surrounding the ritual leaves me with more frustrating questions than answers. I understand that sometimes the less-is-more approach and fear of the unknown can make a horror movie scarier. But in the case of this movie, the meagre plot feels as if it misses a bigger picture. There’s no backstory or explanation given to make me understand the annual ritual. Like why does the ritual exist in the first place? Or why are the teenage boys forced to be locked in the room and starved for days? Frankly, a story like this might work better in a short film than a feature-length film.
Still, Slade manages to overcome the flaw with a few worthwhile moments. He wastes no time getting down to business with a promising start, showcasing the strange and violent ritual of the starving boys hunting down the Sawtooth Jack monster. He doesn’t skimp on the graphic violence and gore as we see Sawtooth Jack hunt and kill its victims in the utmost brutal fashion later in the movie. The overall acting is nothing special but adequate enough while Larry Smith’s atmospheric cinematography evokes the gloomy look and feel of the movie.
Stick around for a mid-credits scene, though, which suggests a possible follow-up in the future. If that really happens, maybe we might find out more about the origin of the ritual.
