I admit that I’ve never actually read Norman Partridge’s Halloween horror novel, but I was always very interested in checking it out. Thankfully David Slade adapts it for the big screen and introduces the movie going audience to a small town that’s very heavily steeped in to such a horrifying nightmare of circumstances. Although the movie is thin in exposition and exploration of elements like character, and back story, “Dark Harvest” does manage to squeeze by thanks to its enthusiastic direction by David Slade, ace cinematography by Larry Smith, and excellent flourishes of gore and vicious violence.
Every fall in a small Midwestern town, a supernatural specter named “Sawtooth Jack” arises from the cornfields and approaches the town’s church, where violent gangs of young boys hungrily await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare in an annual harvest rite of life and death. Richie whose big brother won the previous year’s “October Prize” decides to prove himself. Paired with dreamer Kelly Haines, they defy the rules and the odds to hunt down the creature once and for all and gain their freedom.
The best way to sum up “Dark Harvest” is that it’s basically a Halloween tinted amalgam of “The Hunger Games” and “The Purge.” That works both for and against it, because while the film certainly establishes this weird cycle of violence and abuse, it sadly never really explains anything for us. Every aspect of “Dark Harvest” is absolutely inexplicable and abrupt, which can often work against it. If you’re engaged in the movie for the sake of the story and mythology, you might leave it completely disappointed. I really wish Slade had given us much more fleshed out mythology and take on the origins of this small town and how they became involved in to such barbaric rituals.
But there’s so much about the premise that you go in to absolutely clueless and leave basically clueless. Why is it only boys that can hunt Sawtooth Jack? How long have the town hunted Sawtooth Jack? Why are people forbidden from leaving town? Can those that win come back to town? And if so can they leave again? Who or what is Sawtooth Jack? Why don’t they just destroy the fields and Sawtooth Jack? What gives birth to Sawtooth Jack? Who is the Guild that runs the town? All that said, I enjoyed the whole Twilight Zone twist on the Norman Rockwell fifties town where every person of this upbringing are reduced to absolute savagery for one night.
This also touches upon how the children ultimately have to pay for the “tradition” of this night, where everything could be avoided by simply locking up and hiding away every year. The town gets an almost raw underlying pleasure by this barbarism, and it explodes mid-way during the central hunt for Sawtooth Jack. Slade injects some excellent mood and atmosphere to the film, as well we some great tension. Once the current hunt for Sawtooth Jack erupts, Slade has a great time upping the body count and creating some grotesque victims of the hunt. I also loved the design of Sawtooth Jack whose gangly, gruesome appearance adds to the film’s sense of novelty.
Slade’s film isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot of fun and latches on well to the Halloween spirit and outright bleak unfolding of events. I don’t know if “Dark Harvest” will be looked on as a classic, but I can definitely see myself putting this on my annual permanent Halloween movie rotation.
Now Streaming on Paramount Plus.