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Let's be frank... most horror movies dealing with Indian spirits are
pretty bad (GHOST DANCE, THE MANITOU, you name it) so it's nice to see
an entertaining Indian-themed bloodbath like Savage Harvest, even if
it's more derivative of THE EVIL DEAD than any authentic legend. A
relatively well-made, extremely gory low-budgeter from the makers of THE
SCARE GAME, this is one that gorehounds and fans of graphic horror would
do well to seek out. The film starts promisingly as an Indian gets a
spike driven through his head by his tribe. It spurts blood for a while
and they leave. Something approaches his corpse. In the present, the
small town of Dittmer, Missouri, is recovering from a flood. Young blond
Mikki (Lisa Morrison) goes with her friends Karen, Loretta, Mark, and
Nathan to the lakeside home of Karen's uncle Gary. When the arrive,
Mikki is disheartened to see her jerky boyfriend Jeff (David Berliner)
already there. The kids are meant to help clean out an old shed, but
what they don't know is that the property sits on an old Indian burial
ground.
Gary tells the kids the story of the agony and death of the Trail of
Tears, and a Cherokee elder (Wes Robertson) who used black magic in an
attempt to help his tribe. The elder was consumed by the evil spirits
and turned all the crops to stone. As punishment, he was thrown into a
spring-fed hole and covered with rocks, which the flood has now washed
up. These rocks contain demonic spirits, and when a descendant of the
elder comes to the land, the demons will arise and possess the living.
None of the kids are Cherokee... but one of them had an accident
requiring a blood transfusion some time before.
Pretty soon, the kids start becoming possessed, grow giant sharp fangs,
and the blood starts flowing as the evil dead (heh) rise to claim their
victims. There's a screwdriver in the head, a demon stabs a kid in the
neck with his venomous spiked tongue, throats are ripped out with clawed
hands, a zombie is crushed with an old refrigerator, a head is blasted
apart with a shotgun at close range, there's a chainsaw dismemberment, a
shovel in the chest, a smashed skull, an electrocution, and a girl is
completely torn in half and gorily cannibalized. Eventually, horned
demon Retlawkoob (Jerry Bates) arrives, and that's when the surviving
kids really have their hands full.
Savage Harvest has several things going for it, notably the casting.
Unlike the generic pretty dummies in most similar films, these actors
look and behave more like real people. So maybe they mumble a bit, but
how many young people don't? The videography and sound are above-average
and more than satisfactory for this type of production. And the songs
by Hotel Faux Pas are a nice addition. What makes this effort even more
impressive is that its director, Eric Stanze, was just 21 years old at
the time of production.
The real reason to see this film, however, is the gore. There's plenty
of it, as well as some interesting demon makeup by Tony Bridges. There
are some real scares, too, a rare thing at this level of filmmaking.
Strong stomachs are required, but those with a taste for splatter should
definitely put SAVAGE HARVEST on their viewing lists. For more
information, contact http://www.b-movie.com. The video contains a fun
behind-the-scenes mini-doc following the movie.
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