A man who has faked being an exorcist for years, swindling people out of money while not actually doing much beyond providing a placebo for their issues finds himself faced with a real possession case and must rise to the occasion or move on from his career.
During World War 2, in Malay, a small group of American soldiers are attacked on based and in the woods, forcing them to take a stand and fight for their lives.
At a large estate, a group of worshippers attend an ominous ceremony led by a cultist who they’ve watched on television for a long time. Honored to be there, most of the members are happy with the roles they are given. Onyx, on the other hand, isn’t so sure, but his role may be much more than the organizers could have ever expected.
It’s not often I see a horror movie with such a paper thin script that it blatantly pads the run time. And even when it pads the run time with filler, it still only amounts to a seventy two minute film. And it’s barely seventy two minutes when you don’t factor in the closing credits, and long opening credits. Filmed on a $150,000 budget, what I imagine happened was director/writer Steven M. Smith wanted to film a movie in the vein of “Saw.” He got a hold of a primo haunted house and decided to build his script around the house. That’s likely why the movie’s entire narrative begins and ends in this haunted house, and nothing ever feels organic.
After a girl goes missing, a police sergeant is sent to an island in Scottland when people do not cooperate in his search and seem more interested in their Pagan rituals than in assisting him in helping a missing child.
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.
It’s easy to forget that once upon a time “It” was the prime example of a master class in terror. In a world that’s largely forgotten TV movies, “It” broke all kinds of barriers when it came to primetime TV movies. TV movies were mostly safe melodramas and soft thrillers that were never really about staying power. “It” came along and showed the world that not only could they be an event, but they could be as immortal as theatrical films. You’d think a documentary about a legendary TV movie wouldn’t be prime for valuable film information, but “Pennywise: the Story of IT” disproved a lot of the cynicism I had going in to it.