Dark Harvest (1992)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good concept, poorly executed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A septet of young adults go on a hiking / horseback riding excursion in the desert, led by a guide named Alex (Cooper Steve Anderson). Wouldn't you know it: the locale they're travelling through includes a former Indian burial ground, and those places are always ripe for freaky things in the horror genre. The group will end up menaced not only by local rednecks, but by the murderous scarecrows proliferating in the area.The first two thirds of this minor genre item are actually not as bad as you'd think, given that this particular obscurity was of the "SOV" (or shot on video) variety. Writer / director James I. Nicholson does go out of his way to try to flesh out his characters, and make them more than one dimensional cannon fodder. The actors are also reasonably likable, and Nicholson does subvert expectations in terms of who will be the last characters standing. Since the budget for this was probably next to nothing, expect the cheapest possible visuals and makeup effects. But you can *also* expect some fairly decent atmosphere, and the occasional guffaw when the scarecrows pop up and utter a one-liner. Yup, Nicholson is not taking his little film *that* seriously.Where the film ultimately descends into typical "so bad it's good" cheese and camp is in its final third, when the killings finally begin in earnest. Then the performances, and the dialogue, become ever so much worse.Some of the characters do become insufferable, like Tom (David Zyler) and Jude (Tracy Vivat). Then you become impatient, waiting for them to get theirs. Sex and violence are doled out adequately, with some of the ladies taking off their tops, and the scarecrows gleefully enjoying their own acts of sadism.Not bad entertainment for fans of the entire SOV genre.Five out of 10.

First of all I absolutely adore horror movies about killer scarecrows for example William Wesley's "Scarecrows" is an classic of B-movie horror."Dark Harvest" plays like an unofficial sequel of it.A broken down van strands a group of college students in the middle of the desert.Forced to hike their way out they unwittingly enter a sacred Indian burial ground.There is a bloodthirsty scarecrow on the loose that promptly starts killing them...Very bad and amateurish horror flick with some of the worst acting I have ever seen.The action moves at snail's pace,the film drags relentlessly and the killer scarecrow looks poor.There is a bit of nudity for anyone interested.It's no surprise that "Dark Harvest" aka "Bloody Harvest" is completely obscure.Death reaps what you sow.Yeah,right.3 scarecrows out of 10.

The first 20 minutes of this movie are relatively well made and you honestly would'nt guess that it was an amateurish B-movie horror flick. Everything from the setting to the annoying cast to the dialog seems pretty OK until the actual murders start happening. This is what keeps it from getting a score of 1/10. The shock will hit you when you notice that the bad guy is just a cheap costume with an F-grade special effect for lighting up his eyes. The murder and attack scenes are of course dumb and unscary. The murders happen rather quickly and the hero is also quick to dispatch of the bad guy. The scene where a flare is fired to blow up the bad guy is however, constitutes the worst effects and screenplay I've ever seen. While this is just badly made amateurish crap as far as its own concept is concerned, it is far from the worst in the business.

I am one of those people who will seek fulfillment in the viewing of hard to obtain trashy low budget films deemed so bad that they're good... however, under no circumstance can I even begin to describe how bad this film really is... for it was so bad that I now reside in the relatively safe practice of paint by numbers, all because I mentally could not bear to see another mistake like this. Please don't feel you must now go and watch this film simply for what is been said here, because I mean every word... if you feel you must, then consider this! You may want try eating raw putrefying entrails instead, simply because you will gain much more satisfaction from this, than enduring this utterly harrowing lethargy of motion pictures.It was my own fault! I felt I had to see it through to the end, thinking somehow that I was hardcore, It was a self-inflicted punishment, I believed I could handle it.... And now its too late, almost 90 minutes of my life is truly gone, and i'll never get it back.Save yourself from this, learn from my mistake.... do the ironing, or inflict paper cuts on the webs of your toes, JUST Don't DO IT....