Savage Harvest (1994) — Triskaidekafiles

SAVAGE HARVEST

WRITERS: Screenplay by Eric Stanze
Story by Eric Stanze and DJ Vivona

DIRECTOR: Eric Stanze

STARRING: Lisa Morrison as Mikki
Ramona Midgett as Karen
William Clifton as Mark
David Berliner as Jeff
DJ Vivona as Nathan
Rebecca Kennebeck as Loretta
Rick Fischer as Uncle Gary
Jerry Bates as Retlawkoob

QUICK CUT: A group of friends pitch in to help clear out a place after someone passes away.

THE MORGUE

Mikki - A young woman trying to get a job at a summer camp, and getting pulled into her friend’s bullshit. She’s dating Jeff, when he’s not Jeffing it up, and she’s your average sort of student around this time.

Karen - Mikki’s friend, who is trying to run interference and keep Jeff away. She’s plucky and takes charge when no one else will.

Jeff - Mikki’s boyfriend who has his problems, but is at least trying to put in an effort. Even if he does have boundary issues, and probably should’ve stayed away this weekend.

Gary - Karen’s uncle, who owns the land they’re on, and is trying to clean up stuff from his dad that’s just taking up space. He’s really interested in local native folklore, and geology.

I hear the savages are really coming in nicely this season.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions, it's October first, and you know what that means; it is time for the harvest, a SAVAGE Harvest. This is a mid 90s riff on Evil Dead, that came across my attention, and since it's spooky season, it seemed like a good fit.

Now, I have watched this movie before, and it was tough to keep some of the characters straight, since the plot gets a bit messy, and people are changing costumes here and there, so I feel like I'm gonna mix up names or lose track of people. I just wanna cover my ass for any inevitable mistakes.

Future Esme chiming in: the run through the movie this time went a lot smoother, and I did actually manage to keep track of people (it got dicey with Nathan and Mark though) but I decided to leave my occasional confusion in, because that’s more fun.

The movie at least opens up with someone being pinned down by others, and a stake driven through their face, so that at least catches your attention right out of the gate. I'm not sure how this all ties back in with the overall lore, but we'll see if we can circle back to this.

Following that, we jump to the present day, I presume, since that felt somewhat in the past. We look around a town recovering from some floods, and those same floods having uncovered some rocks that will be important to the plot later.

I am just utterly captivated by the art on the wall.

Have I mentioned I love low budget movies that, since they have no money, have to film in whomever's house is available while filming? Because we get stuff like that.

We spend some time meeting the cast, and everyone is gathering up at Uncle Gary's place to help him pack some stuff up, in return for camping around the area. There's also Mikki's boyfriend Jeff, who is currently on the outs with her, and isn't invited. But as we'll see shortly, shows up anyways.

After a getting camp set up montage, and Jeff and Mikki patching things up enough to exist in the same square acre, Gary shows up with a literal box of rocks, to set up the plot and lore of the movie, for the kids.

Gary tells everyone about how this area was settled by a tribe of Cherokee natives, and their medicine man told them the white man could be trusted, and they did. This lead to them being marched on the Trail of Tears. Oh boy, tying this to a native massacre, that's uh, that's gonna be super comfortable to hang the movie's lore around.

The elder felt a lot of guilt over this, and he tried to find ways to make up for his mistakes. Which led him to black magic, and studying demon summoning. ...Dude, no, not like that.

He learned of the demon Retlawkoob and...wait. Okay, I wasn't sure what they were saying, so I flipped on the subtitles for a bit, to get that spelling, and it instantly leapt out at me. That's...that's "Bookwalter" spelt backwards. And as longtime readers of this site know, JR Bookwalter is a prominent figure and well known in the low budget cinema world. This took me out for several minutes.

The elder's dealings with Retlawkoob led to the tribe's crops being transformed into rocks. So, the elder's plan to make up for his mistakes is going GREAT I see... Anyways, the elder had communicated with multiple demons, and each rock was marked with the symbol of a demon, and Gary just so happens to have a box filled with about a dozen of those actual rocks.

Gary goes on for a bit more about the tribe dealing with the elder by throwing his body down into a spring fed hole in the ground, along with the rocks, and they eventually got washed up in the recent floods.

Oh, and the rocks are conduits for the demons, who will posses the bodies of those who touch them.

But don't worry! This whole thing will only be triggered if a descendant of the elder steps on the land. As long as that doesn't happen, the demons don't awaken, they don't possess people, invisible barriers don't go up around the land, and other weird shit, until every living person on the land is dead, or Retlawkoob is destroyed! We are FINE!

This is...this is a LOT of lore to drop, with a lot of consequences and events and mechanics. I wish it had been more graciously parceled out over the movie, but they actually manage to deliver this huge infodump without being too overbearing about it.

We jump ahead in time to later that night, and Gary and Loretta have gone missing. This is kinda where the plot starts getting messy to me, as they're just suddenly gone to move the plot along, and there's some other guy there I do NOT remember seeing before, and I was paying attention this time! This Mark guy was mentioned, but he was off camera, and easy to miss.

Mark and Nathan, I think, head to the old barn to look for the missing members of the group, and the good news is they do find Gary! The bad news is, he attacks them, and he needs to see an orthodontist...oh wait no, he's possessed by a demon.

Fortunately, this Mark guy showed up, and jabs uncle Gary in the head with a screwdriver, and they run back to report to the group.

Hilariously, those two then immediately head back to the barn to look for Loretta, while the others go to get help. Or, they would, if not for the fact they hit that invisible barrier mentioned earlier.

The boys find Loretta, literally strung up in a tree, and a mark on her neck from some sort of bite. Garystopheles however shows up, and takes a bite out of Nathan with his new stabby tongue.

Mark runs off like the coward he is, and reports back to the group, telling him that Gary isn't Gary anymore. Karen takes charge, and gets everyone back to the house for some good ol' fashioned research.

First, they try and go back for the other two, but get attacked once more by Uncle Gary, and also get informed that one of the creatures that's been lurking around feeding on random stuff, is his wife Linda.

They fight for a bit amidst all the junk, and eventually drop a fridge on Gary. Once the kids run off, Linda tries moving the fridge, rocking it back and forth, lifting it up tiny bits and dropping it back, and I crack myself up imagining Gary, "that is NOT HELPING!!" from under the appliance.

Back at the house, Karen goes through the research, showing all the symbols Gary had in his collection. Worst Pokemon expansion ever. But then she mentions the Man Demon, and of course, the most dangerous monster of all is man...demon.

There's also a bit about how the curses are like a sickness, and it will affect each person differently, and at different speeds, depending on the victim. Ah, that's a clever way to cover up any inconsistencies. But also, this triggers paranoia amongst the group, since we don't know who is possessed, and even they might not know.

Nobody trusts anybody now, and we're all very tired.

We get a shouting match amongst everyone accusing everyone else, and it's all shot in tight closeups, which sure is a choice. Most of the accusations come from Mikki hurled at Karen, who does her best to assure her that Hey Mikki, I'm just fine, I'm so fine it blows my mind, hey Mikki, hey Mikki.

Also, they finally explain the one big problem here about how this was supposed to only be triggered if a descendant of the tribal elder set foot upon the land; see, Karen was in an accident a short time ago, and received blood, and they figure the only thing that makes sense is, that blood must have been donated from a descendant of the elder. SURE I GUESS.

But hey, that at least means they can summon JR Retlawkoob with her blood, and go to get the rocks and do just that. But OOPS, it turns out Jeff has been possessed all this time, and tries to stop them.

The demon from Insidious had a wild time in college.

A fight breaks out and the girls run off, leaving Mark to get bitten and chewed on, AND possessed when he grabs a rock to protect himself.

The girls rush to the barn to set up their plan, restating once again what needs to be done. You know, with a plot this dense with so many plot mechanics, I'm gonna allow it.

But of course, it's never that simple, as Loretcifer shows up to rain on their parade. But, she's quickly taken out with a shotgun to the face, and chainsawed just to be safe.

It’s not a real Evil Dead homage until the chainsaws are broken out.

In the barn, the girls rig up some chain link fencing with some electrical wires, hoping to pull a Jack Riley and electrocutional Retlawkoob when he shows up. They hope that will take him out long enough for them to do what needs doing. Which I realise I have not actually said; the only way to bring down the barrier, aside from everyone dying, is to take Retlawkoob’s heart and press it into the barrier, which will mystically mumbo jumbo it down.

Now it's Mark of the Beast's turn to show up and try and stall them, and he is immediately smacked down and splattered by Mikki with a shovel.

Unfortunately, Karen got cut in the scuffle, and accidentally summons Thrakkazogg early, before they're completely ready. They make the most of it though, and don't do a terrible job, mostly going through with their plan.

Hey has anyone seen the Winterbeast auditions? They're supposed to be around here?

They do manage to electrocute him, but that doesn't put him down so they can remove his heart like they had hoped. He jumps back to his feet, and chases them around some more to pad this out.

Karen does her best to hide, but Retzalcoatl finds her and tears her guts out, leaving only Mikki to deal with him.

Jefferno shows back up to try and slow Mikki down, but she once again just goes all out with zero hesitation and pummels his face in. Some guys just don't know when to take the hint that the relationship is over.

HEY JEFF WANNA CHECK OUT MY NEW CHAINSAW AND HOCKEY MASK??

The movie voiceovers some earlier stuff about the petals of a rose concealing an evil soul, and this explains that the demon can't be stopped unless they crush the white rose that's been lurking around since he was summoned. Have I mentioned the pile of convoluted plot mechanics yet?

But once that's done, Retlawkoob starts to melt like he's a wicked witch who just got doused with water, giving Mikki the chance she needs.

She removes the demon's heart, takes it to the barrier that would keep whomever trapped until everyone was dead, and presents it with the heart. The barrier comes down, and Mikki goes free, walking off into the sunrise.

Oh Mikki, time has come for this film to end, you gotta take his heart so that you can leave this land.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Even being on a Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome doesn’t quite save this. It’s your average shot on video look, no matter what. It’s not quite as good as “Beware” was, but it’s not bad either, we have seen way way worse. It is, what it is.

Audio: Fine for what it is.

Body Count: I can’t complain. The movie mows through most of its cast quite admirably.

1 - Barely 90 seconds in, and *squints* someone gets a stake driven through their head, I think.
2 - Loretta is found dead and hung up.
3 - Nathan is soon stingered by the possessed Gary and joins her.
4 - Mark squishes Gary with a fridge.
5 - But then Mark gets eaten next
6 - Demon Loretta gets her face blasted off.
7 - Nathan gets shoveled by Mikki
8 - Retlawkoob tears Karen's guts apart.
9 - Mikki bashes in Jeff's face.
10 - Retlawkoob melts away after Vicky crushes the rose.

Best Corpse: I think Loretta’s post shotgun body flailing about and spraying blood is the winnter, but there’s some good ones here.

Blood Type - A: They actually have quite a lot of blood here, even if it’s kinda dark to see it all, and some solid effects, from shotgun blasts, to chainsawing, to shovel smashing. And I like that every creature is given its own distinct look, so you can kinda make out what animal it’s supposed to be.

Movie Review: This one is kinda tough, but I’m starting to lean more towards like than not like. It has definitely grown on me over the times I’ve watched it, and it’s easier to keep track of everyone, and not worry about trying to follow the plot mechanics. It’s fairly well shot for a super no budget indie film from the mid 90s, it’s got some creative ideas here, and the cast is about on par for this level of film. The effects are a definite highlight, and while yes, you can see this is inspired by Evil Dead, it’s doing enough of its own thing to really be unique and stand apart from being just an homage. The plot does get messy, but they’re actually trying here. Eric Stanze had a vision, and he brought it to life. Three out of five cursed rocks.

Entertainment Value: Again, a lot of this is gonna come from the effects, which I genuinely enjoy here. And whenever anyone is possessed and in makeup, they’re actually giving it a lot of effort, and dove in, which isn’t always the case for lower budget films with less experienced actors. It’s a solid lesser known movie, that might have a lot of plot being thrown at you, but at just over 70 minutes, at least you’re never bored. Three out of five white roses.