Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf October 31, 2018

A fright film doesn’t need much more than the simple image of Tiny Tim in clown make-up staring into the camera, but director Bill Rebane (“The Giant Spider Invasion”) thinks he can do better in 1987’s “Blood Harvest,” which has the distinction of being an offering of regional horror from Wisconsin, combining slasher entanglements with farmland events. Representing Tiny Tim’s lone starring vehicle, “Blood Harvest” has the challenge of finding things stranger than the actor, who portrays a broken man obsessed with the circus, giving the “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” singer a chance to display more than just his famous falsetto (although that appears as well). Rebane has the vision for a proper genre offering, even giving the material an appealingly remote location, but his execution fails to congeal, often so consumed with exploitation interests, he forgets to make the movie scary, or at least menacing enough to give viewers a reasonable jolt.

Times are tough in Wade County, with rural Wisconsin residents feeling the burn from predatory loans, leading to a rash of foreclosures in the area. Jill (Itonia Salchek) has returned to town to visit with her parents, with her father the local banker, forced to endure constant rancor from the locals. However, upon arrival, Jill’s parents are nowhere to be found, while the family house has been vandalized, unsettling the visitor. Jill’s nearest neighbor is Gary (Dean West), who’s madly in love with the woman, trying to be of use to her as a friend with hopes to become something more. His older brother is Mervo (Tiny Tim), a mentally disabled man having difficulty adjusting to local misery, retreating to the identity of a circus clown to comfort himself. While Jill leans on Gary for support, he awaits the arrival of her boyfriend, Scott (Peter Krause, making his big screen debut), who shows up during a particularly confusing week for Wade County, with additional residents close to Jill disappearing, hinting that a serial killer is on the loose.

Tiny Tim is inspired casting for “Blood Harvest,” which needs something special to help clearly showcase its oddity before the body count begins. And there’s nobody odder than Tiny Tim, who’s often shot by Rebane in tight close-ups, keeping close to Mervo as he experiences a grand detachment from reality, electing to stay a clown to steady himself, clinging to the idea that he’s bringing joy to all. The movie could really just remain here for 80 minutes, enjoying the natural extremity of Tiny Tim as Mervo, singing songs and dancing around the farmland, trying to be of service to Jill as she has difficulty processing her missing parents and living inside an empty home.

“Blood Harvest” intends to provide more of a jolt than the simple image of Tiny Tim locked in a series of thousand yard stares, with murder taking top concern in the writing, following a killer who’s aiming to make life miserable for Jill, picking off her loved ones. We see the acts but not the perpetrator, who ties up victims, hanging them upside down in a barn for gruesome throat-slittings, treating the innocents like animals for the slaughter. There’s a fair amount of bloodshed in the picture, but Rebane is more interested in stalking sequences, padding the feature’s run time with Jill creeping around the property. And there’s almost a sleazy, softcore aspect to “Blood Harvest,” as Rebane returns repeatedly to leering shots of Jill in various stages of undress, with the young woman even chloroformed by her tormentor, subjected to an unconscious nude photo shoot. Rebane is clearly trying to give his film some sellable aspects, but the trade-off is a lack of suspense, finding most scenes carrying on past their expiration date, struggling with a screenplay that’s already low on plot.

Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

"Blood Harvest" is a scrappy little horror endeavor, and the AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation preserves the rawness of the viewing experience, with Vinegar Syndrome sourcing the scan from the 16mm original camera negative. Greenery really holds attention here, with gorgeous Wisconsin vistas that retain their summery colors, while costuming is also vibrant, utilizing broad hues from period wear and circus outfits. Skintones are natural. Detail is satisfying, providing a look at household decoration and silky outfits. Facial particulars are appealing, and distances are preserved. Delineation is sharp. Grain is thick but filmic. There's no sustained displays of damage, but a few scenes showcase a mild red flashing on the left side of the frame.

Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 1.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix isn't built for sonic power, but genre atmosphere is present during the listening event, with scoring cues delivering synth-laden support, keeping fresh and full. Tiny Tim's songs retain their eerie falsetto. Dialogue exchanges are periodically hit with slight sibilance issues, but voices are defined, keeping banter intelligible and more nightmarish scenarios as intense as possible. Screams stay away from distortive extremes. Sound effects are blunt but true. Some mild hiss and pops are encountered.

Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Booklet (six pages) contains an essay by Justin A. Martell.

• Commentary features producer/co-writer Leszek Burzynski.

• "Every Critic is Going to Butcher It" (3:05, SD) is a brief meeting with Tiny Tim during a 1987 stop in Niagara Falls. The singer shares pleasantries with his fans and swigs from a 2-liter bottle of 7Up. Tiny Tim also shares information about his role in "Blood Harvest," openly giving out director Bill Rebane's phone number to anyone searching for more information about the picture.

• "Tiny Tim Performance and Interview" (71:22, SD) is more footage from 1987, this time showcasing the singer's concert at a circus, trying to engage with the small crowd. The celebration is brought back to Tiny Tim's car, where he spends a long time discussing his career with a fan, occasionally breaking out into song and wielding a book on Vanna White. Tiny Tim soon meets up with another person, enjoying small talk about everything from music to the animal content in food. It's strange but enjoyably in the moment with the eccentric performer.

• A Trailer has not been included.

Blood Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The county revolt aspect of the story has potential, playing into decade-specific woes about struggling farmers, but that's dropped early on. Scott's appearance in the movie is strangely shortened, with the young buck mostly here to keep Jill nude, removed from the flow of things in a hurry. And there's Gary, whose obsessiveness with his object of desire is really the only alert element of "Blood Harvest," coming to the rescue when things get particularly slow. The fear factor of the picture is limited, but those interested in slasher cinema might get more of a thrill from "Blood Harvest," which remains modest but intermittently excitable, with plenty of gory close-ups and a reasonable body count. There's the added bonus of Tiny Tim, who commits, but to what is the real question, keeping his "acting" flavorful and authentic. However, Rebane is not making a Tiny-Tim-As-Death effort, which is perhaps his greatest mistake. I understand genre fans and their fondness for formula, but when there's history's strangest troubadour waltzing around the frame in full clown makeup, cutting away to deal with a murder or Jill's shower habits seems like a missed opportunity.