Dark Harvest

Directed by David Slade, Dark Harvest details the violence that ensues every year on Halloween as a mysterious figure called Sawtooth Jack emerges and wreaks bloody havoc. It’s a familiar yet workable premise that’s employed to often shockingly tiresome effect by Slade, as the filmmaker, armed with a screenplay by Michael Gilio, delivers a terminally uninvolving endeavor that’s been suffused with a relentless stream of underwhelming elements and attributes – with, especially, the decision to bog the narrative down with egregiously silly developments wreaking havoc on the movie’s momentum (which is completely non-existent, for the most part). There’s little doubt, as well, that Dark Harvest‘s arms-length atmosphere is enhanced and perpetuated by a total lack of compelling, sympathetic protagonists, and it’s clear, too, that Slade’s efforts at transforming Sawtooth Jack into a fearsome villain generally fall hopelessly flat. (And this is to say nothing of the almost comically convoluted and entirely uninteresting nature of its backstory.) By the time the nigh endless third act rolls around, Dark Harvest has confirmed its place as a misfire of virtually epic proportions and it’s impossible not to wonder what drew Slade to this material in the first place.

1/2* out of ****