Harvest Of Fear (2004)

Harvest Of Fear could have been a pretty good film. The filmmakers certainly put in an effort to set up a town full of suspects. Who is doing the killing? It could be anyone. It could be everyone. Except of course, for the increasing number of dead people - they're probably innocent.

Basically twenty years ago twelve people were killed during Harvest Fest (which is described as being like Spring Break, but just before final exams). And now it's Harvest Fest again. And guess what? There is suddenly a new string of murders. Is there a connection to the other murders? Are the current murders even related to each other? According to the sheriff at the town meeting, "Although there have been nine murders, we're not ready to say that any of this is connected." Okay, then. (I could only remember eight murders, but I didn't go back to the beginning to figure out if I missed one.)

Where the filmmakers don't seem to be trying at all is in being original. Everyone is aware of the murders, and yet couples are still sneaking off to barns in the middle of the night to fuck, like in every other retarded horror film. And then the couple will separate for some lame reason (like so the guy can go get a condom). Over and over we hear, "I'll be right back." Is this a deliberate nod to Scream, or is this just lazy filmmaking? It feels like the latter.

You get this scene multiple times:
GIRL: "What was that?"
GUY: "Nothing." Or, "I didn't hear anything."
Girl and Guy are then murdered by the thing he didn't hear and she couldn't identify.

It's a shame. Because the setting was chosen with care. And they took their time to set up the town really well. But then they just didn't know what to do with it.

But they do give us a good dose of nudity. The first scene has a woman running topless through the woods. (What i didn't like in that scene was the killer smashing an acoustic guitar against a tree. There's no need for that. Kill the woman, sure, but don't destroy a guitar.) At some point in the chase, she manages to put her top back on. But then later we see her at the morgue. She's dead, but once again topless. So for those who like that sort of thing, there you go. Later there is a redhead in a cute sweater, which i appreciated.

By the way, Harvest Fest is totally lame. It's like a dozen people at someone's house, where a few leaves are hung up as decorations. There's not even a band or anything. And yet couples would rather stay for this lame event and risk getting killed than just going to a bar or out to a movie or something. These are people that probably should be killed.