Dark Harvest (2021)

31 Days Of Horror 13

Dark Harvest (2021)

Trailer and some explanation at Tor.com

Not to be confused with Dark Harvest: Legacy Of Frankenstein, or the at least six other films on IMDb called Dark Harvest, this Dark Harvest is based on the 2006 book of the same name, about a small town where every Halloween a monster appears at nightfall and tries to get to the church by midnight to bring a blight that threatens the town. And their solution to this issue is to send the town’s teenage boys out as an angry mob. And not even give them guns, even though guns work.

It’s a big magical ritual, and it worked better in the book (which plays out differently as well) or maybe as a half-hour Twilight Zone episode, whereas the otherwise grounded early 1960s milieu provided by the film just highlights the questions. And some are answered with a reveal, but not nearly all.

That was interesting, I guess. But if it had come out in cinemas as originally planned a couple years ago, I would have left pretty disappointed. Although I would have had an easier time telling the often identically dressed and masked boys in the various cliques apart in the dark.

And if you watch it don’t stop at the credits as it has about twenty seconds of lead credits and then a credits scene in this case with the actual end of the film.

Content notes for racist language and a suicide.

Gameability: Horrible rituals in isolated little towns sounds like Chronicles Of Darkness fodder.