Strange Harvest

Sitting off center in front of the gray swirl background favored for television interviews, Det. Joe Kirby (Peter Zizzo, HBO's 'Duster') of San Bernadino County tells us that he's never seen anything like what happened to the Sheridan family, discovered bound, arranged around their dining room table and bled dry, a mysterious symbol painted in their blood in the double height ceiling above them. What disturbed he and his partner Det. Alexis 'Lexi' Taylor (voiceover specialist Terri Apple) even more, though, was they recognized this as the return of an uncaught serial killer from the early 90's who had been reaping a "Strange Harvest."

Laura's Review: B+

If "The Blair Witch Project" presented its story as real via the found footage format, "Strange Harvest" breaks new ground effectively doing the same using the true crime documentary format. Writer/director Stuart Ortiz ("Extraterrestial," writer, "It Stains the Sands Red") spins a fascinating tale of a ritualistic killer told in relay fashion, a detective's overview filled in next by eye witness testimony, then jumping to news reports, experts' analysis, police body cam footage and back again, the pacing never lagging. Crime scenes are varied and gruesome yet never feel exploitative anchored in investigative reality as they pay homage to such films as "7even," "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Longlegs," with the killer himself receiving a last act 'tribute' right out of "Carrie."

After Kacie Porter (Janna Cardia), a friend of Tiffany Sheridan's, recalls the events which led her to call the police for a wellness check on the family, we get the police body cam view of just what they discovered before Kirby jumps back in to describe the three seemingly unrelated murders that happened between 1993 and 1995 that were tied together when the killer sent the first of his series of Zodiac-like letters to the police, signed with the same triangular symbol found on the Sheridans' ceiling. As new murders begin to pile up within the Inland Empire, an incapacitated assisted living senior left bludgeoned with an eye removed, a 12 year-old boy found without his liver, Kirby and Taylor begin to build upon the clues that began with one 1990's fingerprint. But the killer's gotten savvier in the intervening years and will complete his ten 'transits' before they catch up to him. The killings get more bizarre as they go along, a couple of survivors providing more details about the man known as Mr. Shiny (Jessee J. Clarkson), but one, Glen Sandweiss (David Hemphill), probably wishes he hadn't lived and another two end up suffering more severely a second time around even though Victoria Macenroe (Dawsyn Eubanks) was under heavy police protection in a hospital at the time. A German bookseller and an outdoor telescope help Kirby and Taylor connect Shiny's motivational dots, but although he is finally apprehended, just what he has accomplished remains a mystery, three female campers afflicted by their unwitting observation from afar.

Cinematography and editing reflect the slick work of a high quality true crime doc, abetted by note perfect performances from Zizzo and Taylor as the experienced detectives rattled by the crimes yet even-keeled in their retelling, the former reappearing in a post credit scene, older and still on the trail. One mourner states 'it's said you really die the last time your name is spoken,' insuring that people like Ted Bundy, Gacy and Mr. Shiny will live forever while it is left unsaid that their victims will be forgotten. To add to that gloomy note, Tempers' 'Strange Harvest' plays over the film's closing credits.

"Strange Harvest" opens in theaters on the same day as the much buzzier "Weapons," but horror affcienados shouldn't let this one slip under the radar.

Robin's Review: B

In 1993, a serial killer struck with heinous and graphic murders then disappeared. 20 years later, the fiend, dubbed Mr. Shiny, strikes again with even more brutality. It is up to detectives Kirby (Peter Zizzo) and Taylor (Terri Apple) to find the killer before he disappears again in “Strange Harvest.”

I am NOT the true crime fan in our family but I have seen enough of these true-life crime examination shows out of the corner of my eye to understand the genre. As I started watching this faux documentary of a serial killer, I believed it was real – for a little while. Then, clues begin to pop up that changed my mind – like when the killer, Mr. Shiny, in a letter to the police, says he has “10 more transits left,” apparently to come and kill. The cosmic/supernatural idea is the undercurrent of the horror – and a distraction.

There are elements of David Fincher’s “Se7en (1995)” on display as the imaginative and disgusting murders play out, often involving exsanguinations in various ways.

Again, I am not a fan of horror, but I can appreciate a decent police procedural, and that is what we have here as detectives Kirby and Taylor gumshoe and describe, in talking head interviews, their investigation to find Mr. Shiny. This is the part that helps convince, at first, that this is a real investigation. However, when the faux part becomes obvious, it becomes a found footage horror flick with a spooky bad guy and not much more.

Roadside Attractions releases "Strange Harvest" in theaters on 8/8/25.