Don’t sleep (you won’t be able to, anyway) on Manitoba-shot slasher flick

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Southern Manitoba has always had a unique cinematic quality in October. The landscape especially lends itself to horror cinema with its clear chilly air, gnarly naked oak trees, and existentially desolate cornfields. (It is not a coincidence shooting is underway on the ominously titled Clown in a Cornfield in the province.)

Bear all that in mind when watching Dark Harvest. Shot in Winnipeg, Beausejour and other locations in southern Manitoba in fall 2021, the film by David Slade has made its surprisingly understated debut on Prime Video, with little to no fanfare. (The film reportedly had a larger budget than the usual horror potboiler.)

The movie has its issues, but it deserved better.

It’s set in a small midwestern town in the early 1960s. The town also has its issues.

Every Halloween, the community is subject to attacks by a wraith-like monster known as Sawtooth Jack. And every year, the townsfolk send their sons out to kill the beast, reasoning their sacrifice will guarantee abundant crops for the coming year.

The victor claims a big cash prize for his family and a brand new sports car with which to finally fly the coop.

At the beginning of the film, the rebellious teen Richie Shepard (Casey Likes) enviously looks on as his older brother Jim (Britain Dalton) wins the prize after fending off Jack’s bloody rampage.

That should mean Richie will be exempt from entering the contest the following year. But despite being knocked unconscious by the town’s lunatic cop (a baroque turn by Luke Kirby of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Richie is determined to join his brother in an escape from hicksville.

Along the way, he is discouraged by his parents (Jeremy Davies and Elizabeth Reaser) as well as the town’s bullying jocks, who hate rebels.

One ally emerges: Kelly (Emyri Crutchfield), apparently the only Black person in town, recognizes a fellow subversive when she sees one, and joins Richie in his mission to take down Sawtooth Jack. But as they have ever more dire encounters with the creature, they learn there is more to the ritual than they guessed.

The movie pays homage to about a dozen other horror properties — The Wicker Man, Pumpkinhead, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Purge, Children of the Corn and Shirley Jackson’s story The Lottery, just to name a few.

But beyond the references, what really surprises is that the movie is a barbed allegory of the Vietnam War, though that conflict is never mentioned. Arguably the most horrifying spectacle in the film is parents priming their sons for war, weakly rationalized as a nebulous cause for the greater good.

This is a feature most likely to be appreciated by an older audience. Alas, it is an unlikely demographic, considering the movie is based on a young-adult novel by Norman Partridge, adapted by Michael Gilio.

Nevertheless, it’s strong stuff that mitigates some of the film’s flaws, including weird tonal shifts and a refusal to explain how it is Sawtooth Jack manages to slice through much of the populace without employing an actual weapon.

Still, director Slade manages to deliver the shocks in the manner you’d expect from the director of the nasty 2007 vampire thriller 30 Days of Night.

If a horror movie is only as good as its monster, Sawtooth Jack lives up to expectations. Like Frankenstein’s monster, he’s hideous, but also weirdly poignant in his hideousness. This is solid Halloween fare.