Dark Harvest

While based on a book, and this basically being "another scarecrow movie," it's all new to me and I'm happy to report that despite the mediocre response that the general public has to this so far (at least according to Letterboxd averages), the horror community whose views I respect were quite keen on this, and something about that title I just couldn't shake. The bet paid off.

Listen here, I love the Halloween franchise, even the new trilogy. Love Friday the 13th and want more. But overall, reboots and remakes and all that jazz are just BEYOND excessive and in my view are signs of a dying industry. It doesn't need to be that way, human imagination is boundless. And again, while this is based on previous material, I found this to be really refreshing, especially in the context of the knee-jerk move of relying on films and franchises already, well, beaten to death.

'Dark Harvest' is sort of a Hunger Games kinda thing: in a small town in "America's heartland," a competition to the death for young kids is held yearly in this 1963-set film. It's purpose for being is to rid the town of a menacing, killer creature of sorts that returns every Halloween to hunt and kill local children. I try not to get into plot details too much, because the best way to go into any film is completely blind and unaware of what you're about to see. What I can say, and I suppose ruin for you, is that this film does NOT have a happy ending - still a rarity to this day - and that in turn, made me happy. Another major plus for this creepy horror fantasy is that while not amazing, is solid fun, with inventive kills and a very healthy dose of Halloween atmosphere that to me points to being a new film for the cannon that could be part of every spooky season fanatics' list of yearly watches.

It's darn good fun, unique in my estimation, and something refreshing that I hope more give a chance so we can finally unglue ourselves from the constant anticipation for the return of 50 year-old franchises. Keep that up, and horror, and film in general will not have a happy ending of its own.