At one time or another, we’ve all felt we’ve had the worst parents in the world. We have our reasons, but watch THE HARVEST (2013) and you’ll quickly reevaluate your thinking. The question arises… what is a child’s life worth and how far will you go to save that life when certain death rears its unfriendly head?
THE HARVEST tells the story of a seriously ill boy named Andrew, bed-ridden and bored out of his mind. He’s not allowed to leave the house, play baseball, have friends or go to school, and is barely allowed to leave his room. Andrew, played by Charlie Tahan, is weak and can barely stand on his own, but he still has desires just like any boy his age. These desire have been successfully subdued by his over-protective, borderline psychotic mother Katherine, played by Samantha Morton. Then a misunderstood, rebellious girl his age named Maryann moves into her grandparents’ house nearby and changes everything.
Maryann, played by Natasha Calis, doesn’t waste any time exploring and looking for some way to entertain herself in this secluded area, tucked away in the woods. This is how she happens upon Andrew’s house where the two quickly develop an awkward but empathetic friendship of kindred spirits. For the first time, Andrew actually appears to be experiencing some level of happiness, that is of course, until Katherine discovers the existence of Maryann, which had prior been kept a secret.
THE HARVEST is set almost entirely inside or in the immediate vicinity of Andrew’s home. What Andrew’s house may lack in physical size, it more than compensates with the size and severity of its secrets. With Andrew basically confined to his bed in his room, the house is essentially a prison. Katherine, a medical doctor by profession, is obsessed with curing her son’s ailment at any and all costs, which serves as her prison. Andrew’s father Richard, played by Michael Shannon, is also a prisoner, but his confinement is his hopelessly lost marriage to his mentally unstable wife Katherine.
Written by first-timer Stephen Lancellotti, THE HARVEST is a passionate film steeped in fear, guilt and lies kept by every major player in the film. The emotional scale of the film tilts heavily toward the darker, unsavory elements of humanity. Despite this, Lancellotti’s strong, well-written characters hold the otherwise excessively depraved nature of the story together, keeping Andrew’s world from crumbling around him until the very end. This is most clearly illustrated in Michael Shannon’s surprisingly subdued performance as Richard, a man so beaten-down by his wife’s insistence on being a controlling emotional mess, that he can often barely speak or move in her presence.
Richard is not a coward, but he is weak. Having left his career to stay home and take care of Andrew while Katherine works, he has but a single purpose that drains his very essence, and yet Katherine will not even allow him to fully embrace this role. Other weaknesses of Richard’s emerge in the film, but they all tie back into his desire to do right by his son, however he must. Sadly, that often means protecting and supporting Andrew against his mother’s abrasive, even violent behavior spawned from a truly demented sense of ensuring her’s son’s well-being.
Samantha Morton delivers a performance so absolutely frightening that the concept alone of their being a real life Katherine out in the world somewhere alone sends chills down my spine. On the most primal, stripped down level, her heart is in the right place, but the manner and methods by which she pursues saving her son’s life are so utterly deplorable that virtually every moment she is on screen is cringe-worthy. Consider Kathy Bates’ performance as Annie Wilkes in MISERY (1990) and then notch that sucker up to 11 on the bone-tingling terror scale.
Andrew’s helplessness is made convincing by Charlie Tahan’s performance, not just in the physically demanding nature of the role requiring him to appear weak and broken, but in his emotional state and virtually non-existent level of energy. In pulling this off, Tahan only increases the next-level insanity that emerges from Morton’s performance. Meanwhile, Natasha Calis is perhaps the most normal and well-rounded character in the film, despite her own demons, which are relatively minor in comparison to Andrew’s. Finally, for good measure, McNaughton throws a familiar seasoned favorite in the mix with Peter Fonda playing Maryann’s grandfather. While his role is rather small, he does provide a crucial line of dialogue in the film that, for Maryann, serves as the equivalent of Uncle Ben telling Peter Parker “with great power comes great responsibility.”
John McNaughton is a filmmaker of notable cult status, but many of you reading this are scratching your heads, I am sure. Having made his mark early in his career, McNaughton is best known to true horror movie aficionados for HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), his debut film that also introduced Michael Rooker to movie audiences, who is now something of a household name amongst The Walking Dead fans.
Well-known for the gritty, faux-documentary style of his feature film debut about what makes a killer, McNaughton takes a sizable step away from that visual style. The film still has a hint of that voyeuristic element, but its subtle and will go mostly unnoticed. I realize how strange this will sound, but THE HARVEST actually conveys more of a prime time Hallmark family movie night vibe to its visual style, with its contemporary, shot-on-digital video looking, real life drama sort of stuff, that actually adds to the creepiness of what takes place.
McNaughton is no stranger to delving into projects that develop as much controversy as they do cult following, such as MAD DOG AND GLORY (1993) and WILD THINGS (1998). I feel this will not be an exception to that rule and I am certainly grateful for McNaughton sticking to his guns. I will end with this… if you are not even a little bit afraid of Samantha Morton after seeing this film, please do me a favor and never introduce me to your mother.
THE HARVEST opened in New York on April 10 and is available on VOD now.
The film opens in Los Angeles this Friday, April 24th at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
