User Reviews

The slasher code states that kids who have sex by the lake must die. This movie starts out honoring that code. The killings happen around a annual harvest festival when college kids converge on Devil's Lake. The last one happened 20 years ago, now they are happening again. Same murderer? Copycat? There are a number of suspects: The family of the convicted murderer who claims their son/brother was wrongly accused. A new guy in town, son of a former resident. The old sheriff who believes they are connected. The deputy who is jilted. The creepy town pathologist.

After 8 people are killed the sheriff proclaims, ""Although there have been nine murders, we're not ready to say that any of this is connected." The movie just wasn't that great. The characters and dialogue were bland as were most of the murders.

F-bomb, sex, good initial nude scene with topless chase through woods.

The term may be a bit overused in movie reviews and comments, but if there's a word that perfectly sums up "Harvest of Fear", it's "generic". There's just nothing, not a single element, that would make this movie stand out in any way among the countless other low budget slashers out there, or prevent it from being the instantly forgettable experience that it is. Well, at least not in a positive sense. I gotta admit, the rate at which characters are introduced and immediately killed off again actually is pretty remarkable. It reaches a point where I cannot even identify a clear protagonist anymore. I mean, sure, it's not unusual for slasher movies to feature disposable side characters as fodder for the killer, but "Harvest of Fear" takes this way too far. There's a scene halfway into the movie where a group of teenagers discuss the killing of one of their friends, pondering whether they should still throw that party they had planned... and all I'm thinking is "Who the hell are you people and where did you come from?". Ironically, the one character who does get excessive screen time and some development is a spectacularly irritating police officer with some severe anger issues, who spouts nothing but aggressive, overly confrontational insults and one-liners at anyone who looks at him funny. He's the most unlikable person in the entire movie, and of course, he survives up until the end.

Another thing that bugged me a little was that the writers have taken the slasher movie "rules" and conventions, as satirized by films like "Scream", or "Behind the Mask", a bit too literally. Almost every victim in this movie is slaughtered -immediately- after having had sex, or consumed some kind of drug. Flash some breasts, get the knife. Light a joint, get the knife. Have a beer, get the knife, and so on; you get the idea. I don't know if they were intentionally going for a parodic effect, but this repetitive, predictable formula makes the killings almost comical.

There's also a halfhearted attempt at a murder mystery in there, but blah, who cares about "whodunit" if the characters involved are so disposable, one can barely remember their names?

All in all, "Harvest of Fear" is not at the absolute bottom end of the spectrum of low budget horror movies. The direction was okay for the most part and the way the death scenes were filmed indicated that this could have all been a whole lot better, if it hadn't been for this godawful script with its throwaway characters and overly fragmented back story.

A poor mans Friday the 13th. Like, really poor. Electricity's been cut off, Employment Insurance has run out, "they're going to break my knees if I don't pay up soon" poor. The filming quality looks good. There's some boobs. But the acting is some of the worst I've seen in a long run if movies with bad acting. The piss-poor script doesn't help. It's terrible across the board but the worst has to be the lead Ryan Deal, only because he gets top billing in this movie. He has this permanent smile/smirk that makes him look like every shot is a headshot.

The violence is pretty lame. Lots of throats get slashed. A bit of variation would be nice: It's really funny that it doesn't seem to bother the people that know what's going on too much. Police, parents, obvious victims; no one seems too worried or surprised. "so our friend got impaled by a pitchfork...but we payed for the place for six more days and we're seniors!" That's seriously the logical processing the group of kids has. Honestly, that's dumb enough to make me keep watching. There's been a plethora of dumb logic in horror movies but that takes it to a new level to where I have to see where this goes.

"Got a condom?" "I have one in my car, I'll be right back!" "For a lighter?" "I must have left it by the barbecue, I'll be right back!"

Possibly the worst horror movie I've seen. And that's saying a lot. And not even in a "it's so bad it's good" way. This is just so bad it's bad.