Norman Partridge’s Dark Harvest is one of my favorite horror novels of all time. The book is dripping with personality, a matter-of-fact subversion of slasher and coming-of-age tropes, all centered around a dying town and its dying traditions. What principally elevates the novel is Partridge’s voice, so when it was announced that Dark Harvest would be getting a film adaptation, I was reasonably skeptical. More so when Dark Harvest finished filming in 2021 and then just never released. Luckily, David Slade’s adaptation (written by Michael Gilio) arrived On Demand last October where it immediately cemented its spot among the best horror movies of the year. If you missed Dark Harvest last year, you’re in luck– you can now catch the seasonal classic streaming free on Prime Video.
Per Prime Video: Each year on Halloween just before the harvest, the teenagers in a small farming community band together to try to stop Sawtooth Jack, a demon who rises from the cornfields and races to the town church killing anyone who gets in his way.
Dark Harvest quietly arrived on streaming last Halloween where it was overshadowed by bigger, high-profile releases including Five Nights at Freddy’s and The Exorcist: Believer. Listen, I said bigger, not better. It’s a shame since I could easily see Dark Harvest becoming something akin to a Halloween perennial, a movie that lives in my seasonal rotation among John Carpenter’s Halloween and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.
In our three-and-a-half-star review of Dark Harvest last year, we wrote, “On the whole, Dark Harvest is a visually striking affair that serves up a relentless antagonist, some brutal gore effects, and a suspenseful storyline. I had a really good time with it and I think anyone that enjoys an atmospheric offering with plenty of viscera is sure to find a lot to appreciate here.” I’d probably bump that up a point or two, especially after a rewatch. Dark Harvest is dripping with personality, and that’s such a rarity in the horror genre today. The movie is simultaneously alienating and accessible, but it’s never anything less than engaging.
Now that Dark Harvest is streaming free on Prime Video, I encourage you to check it out for Halloween. Even if you’ve already seen it, stream it again. And, of course, make sure to check out Norman Partridge’s source novel. Weirdly enough, Dark Harvest would make a fantastic companion to Hulu’s Carved. Are we in an era of pumpkin horror? I really hope so.
Let me know if you decide to check Dark Harvest out over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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