Savage Harvest . Weekly Alibi . 08-07-96

Savage Harvest

DIRECTED BY: Eric Stanze

REVIEWED: 08-07-96

I always hear people saying there are no filmmakers today like Ted V. Mikels (Astro-Zombies) or Al Adamson (Brain of Blood)--well, folks, they're out there, it's just that their stuff is harder to find. But thanks to small distributors like Salt City Home Video, a lot of these modern-day grindhousers are becoming available. Granted, many of them suck, but that's not the case here. A bunch of teen-agers head out to a lakeside house for a weekend of camping. The owner of the place tells the kids a story about Cherokee Demons that haunt the land. The demons can't possess the living unless a descendent of an evil Cherokee elder is present, and none of these kids look Cherokee, so everything's fine, right? Uh-uh. Before you know it, the area is surrounded by a mystic barrier, kids are sproutin' nasty teeth and biting the faces off their pals, and everything basically goes to hell. We discover the (pretty clever) reason for the demons' return while the kids read up on Cherokee mythology. At first, this flick looks pretty cheesy, but once it gets going, the sonofabitch rocks. Writer/ Director Eric Stanze does a surprisingly handy job with his cast and his camerawork, throwing in tons of gore and a twist ending that really works. While Harvest's budget wouldn't buy goldfish crackers for the crew of Eraser, I'd put this flick up against stuff like Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things and I Drink Your Blood any day of the week--and from me, that's high praise. And to those whiners who gripe about most of these indie funk-fests being shot on video--c'mon! Do you really think H.G. Lewis would've spent the money to shoot on film if he'd had a camcorder? (Salt City Home Video, P.O. Box 5515, Syracuse, NY 13220 (315) 488-1399)

--Scott Phillips

Film Vault Suggested Links
Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood
Necronomicon
Theatre of Blood

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