Directing his first film in 15 years, John McNaughton who is responsible for such genre fare as Henry: The Portrait of A Serial Killer and Wild Things return with The Harvest, a horror film that maintains McNaughton's penchant for using unspeakable horror to explore cold human relationships. The Harvest is centered around Katherine and Richard, a married couple, who are desperately attempting to remain positive about the outlook of their deathly ill son, Any, who is bed-ridden, suffering from an undisclosed illness that is slowly taking his life. When Maryann, a young teenage girl, moves in with her grandparents after the loss of her parents, she befriends Andy, much to the chagrin of the over-protective Katherine. As Mary and Andy become closer, she begins to suspect something seriously sinister going on within the home. Any film whose two leads happen to be Samantha Morton and Michael Shannon has a lot going for it from the onset, and luckily John McNaughton's The Harvest doesn't disappoint, delivering a fun, horror/thriller about the importance of accepting death and letting go. The star of the film is Samantha Morton, whose performance as the over-protective and mentally disturbed mother is a great performance of villainy, being a woman who will stop at nothing to keep her young boy alive as long as possible. While Katherine's love and inability to accept her son's fate has driven her to madness, Richard is a character who has begun to grow tired of his wife's inability to accept the inevitable, with the film doing a good job at capturing the parental dynamic between these two characters, both of which love their son very much. Those expecting a Horror film are bound to be disappointed, as The Harvest isn't too interested in creating suspense or tension, instead focusing on telling a creepy and strange tale that speaks to its various themes. From a psychological horror perspective, The Harvest pales in comparison to another recent film, Hungry Hearts, which also explores the psychology as it pertains to maternal instinct in an interesting way, but the big difference is that The Harvest is more focused on its narrative storytelling than deep psychological exploration. Featuring two of the best working actors of today in Michael Shannon and Samantha Morton, John McNaughton's The Harvest is a compelling character drama that tells a fun, strange tale of a mother's love driving her to madness.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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