REVIEW: Dark Harvest [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 96 minutes
Release Date: October 11th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) / United Artists Releasing
Director(s): David Slade
Writer(s): Michael Gilio / Norman Partridge (novel)

Does it even matter anymore?

It’s a simple line and yet it provides more context for why an unnamed Midwestern hamlet continues to force its boys, aged 16-19, into the night to hunt a monster every Halloween than Norman Partridge’s original novel does. It’s not necessarily an answer, but it is an acknowledgement. And that’s really all readers of Dark Harvest need to accept the fact that this open-air prison is feasibly built to last. Because you can’t get to the end of the book and not shake your head in bewilderment as it concerns everyone just staying without questioning why. Fear ultimately proves as good a reason as any.

Is it fear of the dust bowl that will destroy their corn crops as created by screenwriter Michael Gilio? Or the fear of knowing no one who leaves ever lives very long afterwards—if they’re ever heard from again? It’s probably a mixture of both. So, we suspend our disbelief and let it happen. Let these people have their debauched night of violence to keep the cycle going. Let them crown a winner and send him off with permission to exit their imaginary city limits. It’s the least they can do to reward the teenager who saves them for another year. If you kill Sawtooth Jack (Dustin Ceithamer), you can do whatever you want.

What I really enjoyed from the book was its unapologetic tone. There are many issues (the biggest two being the aforementioned “why” behind the ritual and the decision to use second person point-of-view in the narration without ever revealing who the narrator is or why he can speak to us considering who we’re supposed to assume we are), but Partridge never lets up on the edgelord attitude of it all. So, it’s nice to see that director David Slade keeps it intact despite the many changes Gilio makes to the text itself (some welcome insofar as condensing characters, some not so much). The deaths on-screen are gloriously brutal.

But that’s not the only reason we’re here. There does need to be a captivating story too. And, for the most part, that fiction comes directly from the book (until the end). Jim Shephard (Britain Dalton) is last year’s champion, smashing the October Boy monstrosity in its pumpkin skull so all the other teen boys can eat the candy spilling out from its lifeless corpse (since they’ve all been starved three days to increase their aggression and need for victory). A year goes by and the time to do it all over again arrives. Instead of Pete McCormick being our protagonist, however, we’re given Jim’s younger brother Richie (Casey Likes).

The reasons for the change are sound—especially where it concerns the secret held by the so-called Harvesters Guild. Whether its facilitation of a very Purge-like atmosphere (in large-part augmented by a 1960s-by-way-of-West Side Story setting) was part of that decision is for the filmmakers to admit, but I’m sure it helped. For me, though, it’s about the angst. Richie misses his brother. He feels slighted that he can’t compete since the family wins money and a car, so two kids winning isn’t really fair. He has a chip on his shoulder to prove he’s both as good as Jim and that Jim was just a regular kid anyway. He’s not some folk hero.

Richie’s journey is very similar to Pete’s in the book. Even down to having a teen girl (Emyri Crutchfield’s Kelly) by his side for a good portion despite girls not being allowed to participate in the “run.” Their relationship pivots from pure survival to romance, but that neither helps nor harms the overall vibe. Making her Black to amp up racial tensions and skew closer to that Purge white supremacy, however, is an interesting and loaded choice to make. The same with Richie’s friend Bud (Alejandro Akara) being Mexican. This is one case where it does seem the film is forcing itself into a conversation solely in hopes of that conversation helping its box office.

Jeremy Davies as Mr. Shepard is great casting if you know the trajectory of that character from the book (albeit with a couple changes of its own courtesy of Ezra Buzzington’s mysterious “Farmer”). And Likes and Crutchfield are very good as the leading duo. We want them to win and escape this place. For my money, though, the real star of the show is Luke Kirby’s Officer Ricks. Boy, oh boy. I don’t know what he’s doing, but it is a hoot. Kelly says it best when describing him as only having “one gear.” He’s supposed to be authoritative and scary, but you can’t help laughing because the performance so over-the-top—but in the best way.

All in all: I had fun. Slade is going super dark, but also super corny with the period flair. Think a horror riff on Grease with Partridge’s Bram Stoker Award-winning plot as its scaffolding. I won’t lie and say I’m surprised it’s taken so long to find release, though. You definitely have to be on its wavelength to enjoy it. Initially slated to drop September 2021, COVID postponed the production start to August 2021. Then its release date of September 2022 eventually got pulled too—presumably due to the MGM/Amazon merger. But maybe it’s all for the better. What horror film doesn’t want a Friday the 13th opening?