I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of horror films in my day, but I’ve never seen one disguised as a documentary before. This isn’t some kind of mockumentary or anything like that. Strange Harvest is trying to be a legitimate documentary film. It works pretty well as such. I was completely immersed in what was going on in this film. Despite the fact that it’s a horror movie disguised as a documentary. I’m glad filmmakers are trying to do new things. Even if they aren’t necessarily good or anything. I’d rather see the director try something new like this and fail than not try at all. 

The premise behind Strange Harvest is this. People sit down at a chair in an empty room that looks like an abandoned warehouse to tell their side of the story involving a series of murders in San Bernardino County, the Inland Empire area of California. Mainly, it’s two detectives who caught the case years ago, played by Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple. Others show up to tell their side of the story as well. Police officers, historians, or astrological scientists. Even some bystanders and a victim get interviewed to talk about their experience during this faux murder investigation. The interviews are pretty extensive. That’s only half of the story, though.

The writer/director Stuart Ortiz structures the film just like a documentary. He introduced some archival footage and found footage in the vein of those kinds of films. From beginning to end, the story keeps unfolding like a true crime documentary. All the various twists and turns in the story were shown on screen in a very intelligent way. I was completely glued to the screen during this film. Like I was watching a true crime documentary. I was riveted by everything that was going on in this film. Ortiz kept the story interesting with all the information he threw at the viewers watching this faux documentary.

The villain in the story was very fascinating as far as villains go. He doubled himself. Mr. Shiny in a series of letters he sent to the police and detectives. He was very thorough in how he crafted his murder scenes. After the earlier one in the 1990s. He came back with a triple murder of a family. His signature is a symbol of three dots connected by lines in a triangle. This had a greater meaning to him than the police could imagine. Ritual murders are a trend lately in California, and this story played on that trend. It had a feel of the Zodiac murders that gripped the state in the 1970s. That vibe worked well for this film.

Ortiz did one thing with this faux documentary that worked very well. He didn’t let it become a joke. All the actors who sat down for interviews as their characters took the interviews very seriously. There was no sign of comedy or joking around. Everybody played their roles straightforwardly. I liked that because I was taking the story seriously even though I knew it was a fake true crime documentary. I don’t know if anybody had tried this sort of thing before, but this was an ingenious idea. I’m surprised I haven’t seen a film like this before. Maybe I have, but I don’t remember. Who knows? I’m sure somebody will try and copy it in the future if it hasn’t been done before.

Strange Harvest is an original film I was completely all in on. The faux documentary style worked perfectly in the context that Ortiz was going for. I’d be surprised if many people don’t think this was a true crime documentary.  I almost did. The cast that Ortiz assembled were all very realistic in their performances. The two main stars, Zizzo and Apple, were great. They kept me completely engaged throughout the film. Without them taking their roles so seriously, the film wouldn’t have worked so well. I was glad to give this movie a chance. It just had an interesting premise, and it turned out to be a good film in the end.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen