Dark Harvest DVD Review:

It seem as though there are no longer any original ideas for horror films, or perhaps any film regardless of the genre, and so in order to stick out there must be some creative twist added. Dark Harvest has all of the elements which made past small budget horror films become cult classics; a group of young promiscuous co-eds, a creepy abandoned house, and a few gruesome deaths.

The original elements that Dark Harvest adds are in fact not as original as the film needed in order to be worth watching. When Sean Connell inherits an old farm in West Virginia, he decides to investigate its worth with a group of friends. Soon they are all skinny dipping, smoking pot, drinking beer, and dying at the hands of evil scarecrows.

It turns out that the scarecrows are the dead spirits of drifters that were killed to help soil the crops during a dry period. This is shown to us in an opening sequence, which is the creepiest and most
original part of the film, using great narration and news clippings to give it a documentary feeling.

If only the rest of the film were able to follow in the vein of the introduction, it may have succeeded in rising above all other video rental horror films. Instead, Dark Harvest ends up being a safe film, not the best or the worst of its kind. Many of the key elements are predictable, and the special effects are often cheesy, but there is no doubt that some of the film is well done. It seems as though much of the film is following the rules of horror films to the dot, unable to stray away from what is expected. The one exception to this is the strange addition of lesbians in the film. It almost seems as though the filmmakers were trying to add a modern political correctness to the classic slasher film story.


Although not a great film, Dark Harvest is sure to entertain you, if only with the substandard special effects and B quality acting. It’s a film for
horror fans, or fans of bad movies to laugh at. Chances are only audiences that fit into one of those two categories would even consider picking up the DVD with a bad Jeepers Creepers style photo on the cover.

There is nothing else on the DVD that would make it appealing either, except for a few trailers.

Ryan Izay

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