6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A couple who keeps their sick son in a secluded environment find their controlled lives challenged by a young girl who moves in next door.
Starring: Samantha Morton, Michael Shannon, Natasha Calis, Charlie Tahan, Peter FondaHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
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 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 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.
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