Stuart Ortiz, one half of the Vicious Brothers, returns with Strange Harvest, a film that so convincingly plays as a late-night true crime special that you occasionally forget it is fiction. Styled as a faux documentary exploring the heinous crimes of a serial killer dubbed “Mr. Shiny,” this is a gory, grim, and impressively executed piece of horror storytelling, equal parts repulsive and riveting. Structured with uncanny realism, Ortiz’s solo feature is less about jump scares and more about dread that creeps in through the side door.
Opening with a harrowing triple homicide, we find a decades-spanning investigation spearheaded by two detectives: the emotionally bruised Joe Kirby (Peter Zizzo) and the hardened but sympathetic Alexis Taylor (Terri Apple). Both Zizzo and Apple feel utterly convincing, which is no small feat when most of their work is done in talking-head segments.
Visually, Strange Harvest is a collage of media, including police interviews, crime scene footage, faux news reports, home videos, and evidence photographs. This mix of formats creates an absorbing and believable tapestry, at times disturbingly so. The film weaponises its realism, making the viewer complicit in piecing together the story. You will recoil, but you can’t look away.
Mr. Shiny himself, portrayed with quiet menace by Jessee J. Clarkson, is a particularly nightmarish creation. Like a blend of serial killer myth and occult bogeyman, he drifts through the narrative as both a flesh-and-blood monster and the agent of something perhaps otherworldly. His methods, including leeches, ritualistic killings, and symbolic bloodletting, draw a clear line into the territory of Lovecraftian horror, though Ortiz wisely keeps much of the abstract elements ambiguous. This ambiguity allows the film to retain its grip on believability, even as it edges into more esoteric territory.
Bound and gagged victims sit at a table in Strange Harvest.
“…[explores] the heinous crimes of a serial killer dubbed ‘Mr. Shiny’…”
Fans of The Poughkeepsie Tapes will find themselves on familiar, though more polished, ground. While Strange Harvest lacks the raw, home-video grit of its spiritual predecessor, it trades that for a more composed, clinical aesthetic. It’s slicker, but no less disturbing. If anything, its resemblance to the gloss of real-life Netflix crime documentaries makes its grotesque turns all the more disorienting.
There’s a bleak satisfaction in the pacing. The film slowly tightens the screws, drawing the viewer deeper into the nightmare. Just when you think you understand what you’re watching, the film pivots, revealing further layers to Mr. Shiny’s bizarre ideology and backstory. The supernatural elements creep in subtly, and while they might lose some viewers who prefer their killers without celestial baggage, they add to his eerie mythology.
A few lines of dialogue fall victim to the mockumentary trope of over-dramatic signposting (“…but it wasn’t over”). Still, these are forgivable flaws in what is otherwise a grimly effective piece of genre filmmaking.
Strange Harvest is a brutal, well-crafted descent into depravity that walks a tightrope between realism and horror fantasy. For fans of found footage, true crime, and occult horror, this is a grisly treat.
"…you will recoil, but you can’t look away."
