Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Harvest Blu-ray Movie Review

Best Achievement in Misdirection?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 1, 2015

Years ago in my guise as a musician I had the opportunity to sit at a piano upstage from (i.e., behind) a magician who had been hired to entertain a party. It was a fascinating object lesson in not just some of the literal tricks of the magician’s trade (as in tiny little wires supporting some items which I could see quite clearly but which the audience just as obviously couldn’t), as well as some of the more subtle techniques the guy used, including some willful misdirection which caused the audience to look toward one area while something else entirely was happening elsewhere. There’s something akin to that same sort of misdirection going on in The Harvest, a fitfully engaging thriller that plays on tropes of claustrophobia and what initially seems like parental concern about a perhaps mortally ill child, only to offer a florid twist part way through the enterprise which suddenly sheds a completely variant light on most (if not all) of what has been presented thus far. Director John McNaughton, still basking at least a bit in the reflected “glory” of his long ago first feature Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (at least as evidenced by The Harvest’s marketing campaign, anyway), hasn’t been an especially prolific director, often taking years between projects (according to the IMDb, his last two credits prior to The Harvest were in 2006 and 2007, and both of those were episodic television outings). That may lead some curmudgeons to wonder why parts of The Harvest seem at least relatively slight. But McNaughton uses that very mundaneness to create some of the very misdirection which serves as one of the film’s best features. As McNaughton and producer Steven A. Jones aver in their commentary on this new Blu-ray, the whole first sequence of the film in fact acts as a sort of non sequitur (in McNaughton’s words) or willful misdirect, with a little league game that ends in apparent tragedy when the pitcher is struck by a forceful smack of a baseball right on his breastplate. The kid falls over, seemingly mortally wounded, but a quick trip to the emergency room and skillful work by heart surgeon Katherine (Samantha Morton) bring the kid through. It’s a deliberately discursive way to introduce Katherine, one of the film’s central characters, and the very context of that introduction is in and of itself something of an illusion.

Note: While no out and out spoilers will be posted below, there are certain elements of The Harvest’s plot whose mere mention may disclose enough information that those who are skilled at guessing putative “twists” or at least reading between the lines may be able to divine some of the film’s story machinations. Those folks are encouraged to skip the rest of the review.

The Harvest’s very title is perhaps a bit too revelatory for those who stop to contemplate it for a moment, especially once the film gets into what seems to be its main focus, the travails of Katherine and her husband Richard (Michael Shannon) to care for their desperately ill son Andy (Charlie Tahan, Blue Jasmine). Katherine’s medical expertise has kept Andy alive, if only barely, but she’s obviously consumed with protecting the young boy, to the evident angst of Richard, who laments that the poor kid is relegated to a bedroom while his life passes him by. The woman to whom Richard confesses, an eager blonde named Sandra (Meadow Williams), is ultimately revealed to be more than just a simple shoulder for Richard to cry on.

While that little bit of marital infidelity is part of the film’s subtext, Stephen Lancellotti’s screenplay takes yet another seemingly bizarre detour when it shifts to the story of Maryann (Natasha Calis), a young girl whose own family trauma has necessitated a move in with her grandparents (Peter Fonda and Leslie Lyles). Maryann is suffering from a recent tragedy as it is, but is further traumatized by the prospect of having to recreate her life in a new location and environment. Some rural exploring finally brings her to Andy’s home, which is when the two stories finally intersect.

It’s at this point that The Harvest begins to traffic in a bit more of a Grand Guignol ambience, as Katherine becomes increasingly unhinged once she finds out Maryann and Andy have met. There are some extremely well staged showdowns in this part of the film, including a very tense (if predictable) sequence where Maryann has to get the wheelchair bound Andy back to the confines of his bedroom before Katherine returns home. That in turn leads to the first major reveal of the film, when Maryann’s explorations of some other parts of the farmhouse offer up a surprise or two. Even here Lancellotti is deliberately misleading, initially taking Maryann down one veritable garden path only to reveal a figurative topiary labyrinth of sorts that it takes her a while to wend her way through. Suffice it to say that Katherine's maternal instincts are not exactly what they appear to be, and in fact Andy himself may not be exactly whom he appears to be.

While there is at least one glaring lapse of logic at play in The Harvest’s subterfuge, the film has an undeniably moody atmosphere that is often quite stifling. Morton is hammily fun as Katherine goes more and more off the rails, and Shannon is surprisingly tamped down in a role that calls for Richard to toe the line somewhere between hero and villain. The two “kids” of the film offer naturalistic performances, with both essaying fragile but resilient souls who are struggling with emotional and/or physical disabilities. If The Harvest eventually sows a bit too much hyperbolic silliness in its closing act, it’s uniquely unsettling in its depiction of a mother’s love taken to frightening extremes.

The Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Harvest is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of IFC Midnight and Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. According to the IMDb, this was shot on film with the Arricam LT, and the depth and texture of the image are two of this transfer's best assets. There's relatively little overt color grading on display, and the presentation boasts a very natural looking palette (for the most part, anyway) that preserves some nicely organic looking colors across the spectrum. Detail and fine detail are often excellent, including some less than appealing elements like Fonda's somewhat strangely mottled looking skin tones. Occasionally just slightly soft looking, the presentation still offers above average clarity. Perhaps because of the film's tendency not to exploit dark environments (again, for the most part), Shout!'s recurrent issues with compression are not quite as evident here, though persnickety videophiles will still be able to spot the seemingly unavoidable yellow chunkiness that has attended many releases by this label.

The Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Harvest tends to be a rather restrained entry for a horror film from a sound design standpoint, and so the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track offers few if any audio clichés like booming LFE accompanying jump cuts to provoke startle responses. Instead, some very subtle but effective directionality is attained in little moments like a crow flitting into the cornfield outside of Andy's bedroom window, with clear delineation of ambient environmental reverb and effects between indoor and outdoor environments. There are a couple of more florid sonic touches, especially in the over the top finale, that provide more consistent and obvious surround activity. The film's dialogue and "fairy tale" (as described by McNaughton and Jones) score by George S. Clinton are rendered effectively and clearly, with excellent prioritization.

The Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director John McNaughton and Producer Steven A. Jones


• The Harvest Trailer (1080p; 2:10)

The Harvest Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Harvest has a really palpable mood, even if its premise of a bedridden, wounded and frail male being attended to by an increasingly unhinged woman with a bit of meat on her bones may remind some of Misery. The real "hobbling" in this particular case is a somewhat overheated third act which tends to go maniacal when the rest of the film has kept things admirably restrained even as plot points have become increasingly unlikely. The film is buoyed by excellent performances all around, and McNaughton paces things very well, including some well staged set pieces. Technical merits are generally very good to excellent, and The Harvest comes Recommended.