The Harvesters

I saw this movie at a Christian film festival screening where it was met with rousing applause and won "Thriller of the Year". I enjoyed the acting, the story and high production value. Although it's a bit intense in places, it's a good family film (maybe not for the little ones)! The young girl, Dani (played by Krystal Hernandez/Amber) was tender an innocent, while I rooted for all of the villains to come to justice, or, you know...die! They were creepy! The female lead, Rachel (played by Dianne Luby) was beautiful, strong and captivating, which balanced out the more mild-mannered Jeff Carver (played by Robert Lee). Everyone who saw it, recommended it to others. I only wish it could be purchased in the United States...we are waiting!!!

The fact that "The Harvesters" was made by Christian filmmakers should give you some idea of what it's like and give you alarm. In fairness, the movie did surprise me a little in some areas. The only religious part of the movie is when the characters say grace before a meal. Elsewhere in the movie there is a love scene where the unmarried protagonists have sex, and in the climax there is some surprising bloody violence. However, small touches like those weren't able to save the movie. While this movie (made for under a million dollars) isn't as threadbare-looking as you might expect, it still looks pretty undernourished, with limited props and dressed locations. There are a few technical goofs, like during the climax where a bad guy talks to someone on a speaker phone, but they forgot to dub in the voice of the guy on the speaker! But what really makes the movie fail is that it lacks tension and suspense. The movie keeps assuring that help from the authorities is just a short distance away, so there's never any fear the protagonists will be killed or hurt. It's possible for Christian filmmakers to make a good suspense movie - check out "Brigham City" - but this isn't one of them.

Note: This movie is a Christian morality play. It will probably be enjoyed by its target audience. The plot is decent and the movie is coherent unlike some other films of its type like the laughable "Left Behind" series. The actors are amateurish rather than incompetent. The picture has decent quality. However the budget is really bad. An example is the FBI guys obviously using some crew member's pickup truck. Then there are scenes that supposedly happen at night but bright light can be seen streaming through windows. However the plot depicts the sort of criminal operations that probably do actually exist considering the demand for viable organs and the amounts of money involved. There have been proved cases of people murdered for their organs in various parts of the world, after all. Once again, probably a good movie for its intended audience but others should stay away.

OK, where to begin? The movie has the look of a Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints infomercial, the acting is sub-par at best, the love scene in the movie has both the characters still wearing underwear and kissing each other like they were kissing their grandmother, the assassins were possibly the worst shots ever in film history, they had a laser scope on their rifle and still missed him by at least 2 feet. The possibly most horrid thing about this movie is you could tell there was at least some money behind this production, and it still turned out so poor. This movie was part of a collection of 12 horror movies (and for that matter, what the hell was this movie doing in a horror collection?)for $20 CDN, and it still felt like the worst use of a $1.67 humanly possible. My friends and I have watched many uniformly awful movies for laughs (including such 'highlights' as The Crawlers and Don't Go in the Woods), and we still think 6 hours of Tabasco sauce enemas may be a better Sunday afternoon pass time than this steaming pile. Avoid like the Avian flu.

I got to see "The Harvesters" recently on DVD. It was produced by a Christian film company, so we were hesitant at first, as we generally felt Christian films were often cheesy and overplayed. This film, though not a big budget project, really had some enjoyable actors, a compelling storyline, and some decent visuals - especially the female lead (hubba hubba :). The whole group who watched it, had some suggestions that could have made the picture better, but all in all we all really liked it! -- It's certainly not going to fulfill the bloodthirsty or sexual needs of those in the horror camp...but then again, it was never intended to. it was quality entertainment for most all ages (maybe not the younger ones), and one that we will watch again.