For Night Of The Harvest, the excellent production design makes all the festive, spooky knick-knacks march across the screen. I am talking deep inside the pumpkin to the candy corn core. I could almost smell the polyurethane costumes from Woolworths from the 70s. Like the Joyce character, Night Of The Harvest is nuts for Halloween.
Unfortunately, the major achievements of writer/director Carter and Morgan cannot be discussed or even hinted at without setting the whole pumpkin patch on fire. Just know that Night Of The Harvest is one of the most genius slasher movies ever made. Carter and Morgan make the sub-genre-shaking decision of putting in the second act the material reserved for the third act, then see where it all goes.
“Night Of The Harvest is one of the most genius slasher movies ever made.”
If this seemingly simple formula was applied to the classic slashers, it would suddenly give endless possibilities to the traditional painted-by-numbers storylines. And don’t be fooled by the seemingly extraneous dialogue sequences, as you will see why they are so strategic when everything lights up later. These sequences also offer denser character building than most slashers, with richer roles for the acting ensemble.
You also actually give a damn about the victims, which is not the norm for a slasher. Isabell is particularly adept at portraying the PTSD a former final girl from a slasher attack would be dealing with. Gubersky is pure cinema zany; she lights up the screen from end to end while bouncing around it. Even the cop character, played by Steve Mckee, gets a chance to strut his stuff. Night Of The Harvest reinvents what a Halloween set slasher can be, as the heights achieved here are bloody stratospheric.
"…one of the most genius slasher movies ever made."
