STRANGE HARVEST
****
Directed by Stuart Ortiz.
Starring Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Jessee J. Clarkson.
Horror, US, 94 Minutes, Certificate 18.
Released in the UK On Digital by Vertigo Releasing on 27th October
True Crime seems to be becoming something of a mini-industry at the moment. Swathes of documentaries, books, podcasts, films and television series trying to catch our attention with all manner of despicable human behaviour. The dark side of human nature has always had an appeal, especially in horror but it could be that the more fantastical elements inherent in the genre have held it back when compared to the more immediate and recognisable aspects of real life that make true crime so popular. Despite these disparities there are elements that are traded between the two, each perhaps influencing the other as the years go on.
Enter Stuart Ortiz, best known until now for co-directing the found footage haunted house spooktacular, GRAVE ENCOUNTERS from 2011. Where that film took on the conceit of a paranormal investigators television show, Ortiz mimics the kind of documentary where detectives, victims and witnesses are quizzed over a crime with all manner of video, audio and photographic footage to explicitly illustrate all the grisly details. The case at the heart of the matter here concerns a ritualistic serial killer named Mr. Shiny, a masked figure behind a reign of terror that has plagued California’s Inland Empire since the early 1990’s. The lead detectives on the case, Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor, played in convincingly naturalistic fashion by Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple, describe their involvement in a case that gets bloodier and weirder with each successive victim, leading onto a climax which raises just as many troubling questions as it does answers.
Ortiz never sets a foot wrong in his reconstruction of a reconstruction with all of its tics and cliches. Expertly aping the style of so many documentaries with the aid of expertly chosen stock footage amid dramatically constructed interviews and “original” video footage from security and body cams. The exploitational nature of this type of documentary is also presented in a manner that both satirises that nature while also providing the shocks and gore more closely linked to horror. While Ortiz may be making a point about the sensationalistic tricks of one genre, he simultaneously manages to make a horror film that unsettles and disturbs to such a degree that it could raise the heckles of most hardened viewers.
The story progresses more and more into outright horror territory, with the occult angle rising to the surface then revealing itself as something else that is just as chilling and frankly more original and exciting. It marks a significant step up in terms of style and storytelling for Ortiz. Where GRAVE ENCOUNTERS traded on well worn found footage ground, this uses the familiarity of certain documentary tropes to tell an original story in a thrilling and grisly fashion. The found footage moments here pack a real punch, eliciting some real jump moments to go along with the often gruesome imagery and the cosmic nature that gradually seeps into the twisted and gripping story.
This is a film packed with inventiveness, admirably and convincingly accomplished on a small budget. There may in fact be too many ideas packed in here, Etruscan pottery is remarked upon here in a manner that suggests an intriguing development but is never brought up again. A post-credits tease however promises a further exploration of other angles, suggesting that Ortiz has further plans for this story and its numerous malevolent leanings. If so, this is a great introduction to an intriguing story and a memorably sadistic villain, but if not then this is still a successful and memorable exercise in mixing form and storytelling to come up with something quite original and chilling.
Iain MacLeod