NIGHT OF THE HARVEST: It Gave It A Shot

When it comes to movies, I’ll watch just about anything you put in front of me. If you tell me it has a story and people acted in front of a camera, I’ll give it a look just to see what they were up to. Night of the Harvest was a film that came to me out of the blue, directed by Christopher M. Carter and Jessica Morgan (from a screenplay written by the pair), that I was completely unaware of. It wasn’t even a blip on my radar and usually (as too many people will tell you) I hear about all the new movies coming down the pipeline–good and bad. I seek them out, I’m (for good or ill) a cinema junkie. If for no other reason than morbid curiosity, I had to see it. I said “yes” immediately.

Night of the Harvest, contrary to what the title may lead you to believe, is not a film about a group of farmers who decided they should all cut their grain one evening, no, it is instead a horror movie. Centered around a curse that apparently only one family are equipped to deal with the movie has a cast featuring Aeric Azana (Fallout 76), Jessica Morgan (One Night in October), Brittany Isabell, Autumn Gubersky, and Jim Cirner. There is a killer in a scarecrow mask (or two, or three) and a group of friends who all decide to attend a party to help bring in the Halloween season. As I’m sure you know, a party in a horror movie is probably the safest place you can ever be.

It All Happened In One Night

True to the the title, the events of the film all take place over the course of a single day and night, Halloween Eve. Needless to say (as with any curse) blood has to be spilled in order to keep the demons or ghosts or a new Spirit Halloween from taking over. The story is a little bit all over the place for most of the film, constantly contradicting itself with the information that it gives us. Some of the things that it tries to sell us as fact earlier in the film, between two characters that both know better, all turn out to be untrue. Which is fine but the only two characters talking about what happened “a year ago” both know the truth, they are only lying for the audience. Completely maddening. This is just one of many cases like this.

The acting for the most part was wooden, with very little in the way of talent being displayed, and no character development to be found anywhere, not here, not in these parts. That being said, Aeric Azana turned in a performance and brought to life a character I could actually latch onto and root for. He was a delight and I hope to see more of him in the future. He just oozed a likable quality that had me pulling for him from pretty early on. When his character first came on screen I said, finally, this is our guy. Surely this is our guy.

The directing wasn’t anything inspired and there were a lot of editing mistakes, at least I hope they were editing mistakes, but we would have characters looking at things off screen that they never gave us a peek of. We had no idea what they were reacting to and that was also awful. I wanted to be scared too and they just wouldn’t let me. It wasn’t all bad though, the cinematography was great and it was actually a pretty movie to look at. The biggest thing for me was the lack of score. There was little to no score throughout the entire movie, only giving us a little stab here and there when a killer was spotted. Otherwise there was only silence unless one of the many characters was in the middle of delivering one of their exposition filled monologues. Then the silence would be broken.

The Harvest Is In

There’s something about a group of people, raising the money on their own, cobbling together some camera and sound equipment, putting together a group of actors who may or may not have had training, who may or may not have talent, and setting off to make a movie. A movie of the super independent persuasion. This was their Clerks moment, if Clerks had told a story full of plot-holes, where sixty percent of the dialogue was forced exposition. This was their El Mariachi, if El Mariachi had borrowed from every other movie in its genre and became so trope heavy that if the film were a person its legs wouldn’t be able to hold it upright, let alone walk. And yet, at the end of the day, it was fun. There was a character that I rooted for and actively wanted to win. There was an idea of a movie here, a promise of a future where the story could be cleaned up, tightened, plot-holes filled in, and another go attempted.

The movie had a certain charm where, no matter what was happening, no matter how many jokes I made at the film’s expense, I was having fun. I was being entertained even if most of the entertainment came from myself yelling at the people on screen. Was the movie good? No. But did I have a good time and more fun than I should have while watching it? I very much did. So, all things considered, that has to be a success right? Personally, I think it does. They did something that few people get to do, they actually made a movie. That in and of itself isn’t an easy thing to do but it has a beginning, a middle, and an end even if some of those sections don’t completely make sense. I don’t think Night of The Harvest will become a cult classic anytime soon but if you have the ability, you should give it a watch. If for no other reason than to get inspired. Inspired to make your own film. If they can do it, anyone can do it, and if you think you can do better, give it a try. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the next Kubrick or Nolan. Either way, fun will be had.

Night of The Harvest is now available on digital platforms.