Teenage existence can be a challenging experience, regardless of where you come from. However, the teenagers of Dark Harvest face a unique and sinister test. In an idyllic but unnamed Midwestern town in the early 1960s, young people struggle with more than just the usual teenage struggles involving hormones and homework. They also must contend with an annual ritual that thins their ranks: Every Halloween, they embark on a quest to hunt a mythical creature: a towering, screaming scarecrow adorned with a smiling Jack-o'lantern face.
This sinister being emerges from a cornfield and advances towards the local church. If he infiltrates the church, the year's harvest is doomed. However, there is a silver lining for the teenager who manages to stop this monstrous entity: the chance to escape his rural purgatory, a privilege no one else has. In exchange, his family receives a new house, a new car, and ultimate bragging rights.
Director: David Slade
Writers: Michael Gilio, Norman Partridge
Stars: Casey Likes, Emyri Crutchfield, Dustin Ceithamer
Sawtooth Jack, the appropriately named monster (presumably because Pumpkinhead has already been captured), does not succumb easily. Watching the creature treat a child's head like a candy dispenser might be enough to make any of its peers envy the unfortunate residents of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," which remains the quintessential children's story.
American towns with deadly traditions. In just a few pages, Jackson deftly hinted at the fate that awaited the unfortunate "winner" of her gruesome lottery. By contrast, Dark Harvest quickly reveals the nature of its macabre annual event, and this is where the film's problems begin: a creature feature that is, in the end, irreparably silly.
Screenwriter Michael Gilio, adapting Norman Partridge's award-winning 2006 horror novel, at least takes pains to contemplate what life would be like when a potentially fatal monster hunt looms over you all year long. There's a touching opening scene showing the terrified children sitting in the stands, trying to convince themselves that Sawtooth is a figment of their imagination, although, considering the increasing body count throughout the film, one would assume that the dwindling number of graduates should quell such illusions. thought.
However, Dark Harvest's depiction of a 1960s small-town setting falls short of authenticity, lacks the realism of a genuine location, and fails to embrace a sufficiently stylized, David Lynch-style retro vibe.
The characters in the film are no more nuanced or believable. We follow Richie (Casey Likes), whose older brother, a football hero, successfully captured Sawtooth the previous Halloween and quickly left town. Although Richie is exempt from the annual ritual, he too longs to escape and who can blame him? He prepares for the impending hunt against the wishes of his parents, played by the equally Stepford-esque Elizabeth Reaser and Jeremy Davies.
Both parents sport matching haircuts, glasses, and a brooding demeanor, reminiscent of Henry Thomas in another recent, if equally unconvincing, horror film set in a comparatively unconvincing 1960s America.
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