I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: far too often, microbudget indie horror filmmakers seem content to do little more than half-heartedly rehash tired old tropes in a manner that demands little of themselves and even less of their audiences. It makes me very happy to say that this is most emphatically not the case with Harvest Lake. At a glance it would appear to be something we’ve all seen before – generic title, bunch of young pretty people at a cabin in the woods – but I can assure you, there’s never been a cabin in the woods horror movie quite like this one before. And I truly hope other indie horror filmmakers are taking note, as – while it isn’t an unequivocal success in every respect – I get the feeling this could prove to be, in its own way, something of a game-changer.
We open on an anonymous man and woman in an idyllic woodland lakeside setting. It would appear they’re there on a romantic getaway, given they proceed to go at it like rabbits right then and there; yet given their complete silence and the strange, hypnotic expressions on their faces, it’s readily apparent that things might not quite be right with the couple, a feeling that intensifies as they step into the waters of the lake, and promptly disappear beneath the surface.
From here we cut to X number of miles away, where we meet our core ensemble of twenty-somethings – lovebirds Ben and Cat (Dan Nye and Tristan Risk), Jennifer (Ellie Church) and Josh (Jason Crowe) – who are heading out to those very same woods in celebration of Ben’s birthday. It’s a familiar scene: the couple can hardly keep their hands off one another, whilst the single female seems more inhibited, and they even have a token gay friend in Josh. On arrival at the cabin, Cat demonstrates her impetuousness even more by inviting a complete stranger, Mark (Kevin Roach), to join them at their party that evening. However, after the four friends head down to the lake and recline in the sun for a while, something seems to come over them all… and for once, that might not entirely be a euphemism, as that same sexual trance that fell over the anonymous strangers in the first scene starts to get its hooks into the new arrivals. It seems there is something in these woods, some inhuman entity which wants any human being that ventures into its territory, and has an interesting method of trapping its prey: by making them, as one character puts it, “horny as fuck.”
It’s an intriguing set up. Surely no one would deny that sex appeal has always been a key sales point of low-budget horror, generally in the form of the scantily clad woman running screaming from the big phallic weapon; yet Harvest Lake, for the most part, sidelines violence completely, and makes sex the real focal point. Certainly, this isn’t the only time a horror movie has done this; Cronenberg’s Shivers comes to mind, and that’s a film with which Harvest Lake does share some common thematic ground. But where Cronenberg presented us with an urban sexual revolution by way of a parasitic infection, Schirmer’s film shows its protagonists descending into unbridled sexual abandon as they become (as the poster tagline puts it) ‘one with nature;’ and in both films, we’re left to question whether or not what’s happening to them is necessarily a bad thing.
To make one further comparison with Shivers; that film was very concerned with reflecting the sexual politics of the time, and this is also true of Harvest Lake. Seeing that it’s a film written and directed by a man, and featuring two actresses who are known to have appeared naked on film before, you’d be forgiven for anticipating an old-fashioned male pornographic fantasy. And to an extent, you’d be correct, as both Tristan Risk and Ellie Church spend the bulk of the film wearing very little; Risk in particular sports bikini bottoms which leave so little to the imagination, she might as well have literally slapped a fig leaf on there. However, whilst there’s no shortage of voyeuristic shots of the women, Schirmer makes a point of treating his male cast much the same, addressing the usual inequality directly when Risk demands Nye change out of his board shorts into skin-tight Speedos.
Crucially, while the film’s characters seem at a glance to be nothing but slasher movie archetypes, Harvest Lake is altogether more progressive in its outlook. Risk may seem the unabashed harlot who would ordinarily be lined up for the meat cleaver, but the film never condemns the character for her voracious sexual appetite; Church, while the ‘good girl’ by default, is in no danger of being mistaken for a nun; and Nye, who would initially seem the textbook jock, is far from the standard emotionally retarded ball of testosterone. Perhaps most notable is Jason Crowe’s character; while at first he seems little more than the usual token gay, there to act swishy and crack camp one-liners, he proves to be a far more nuanced and interesting character than gay men are typically allowed to be in (for want of a better word) straight horror. Things take a particularly unexpected turn with Kevin Roach’s character, who – despite the not-entirely convincing circumstances of his introduction – is also signposted to be something quite different from what he turns out to be.
We might question how well this largely progressive, pro-sex attitude sits with the supernatural threat which is also sexual in nature. There are also a few moments of more conventional threat and violence which feel a little out of place, briefly derailing the film into more standard terrain. But again, this is a film that’s interested primarily in pushing boundaries, challenging preconceptions, and leaving you unsure as to what the fuck it was you just saw – and in this, Harvest Lake most definitely hits its target. It’s clear it was made for a small budget, but for the most part this really isn’t a hindrance at all; the special effects may have a very lo-fi feel, but surely this is preferable to the kind of cut-price CGI we see all too much of.
We need more indie horror movies like Harvest Lake. By that, I don’t mean more Lovecraftian erotica in the woods; I mean films which take a stab at rewriting the rule book, and presenting a truly different brand of horror. In doing just this, Harvest Lake has definitely raised the bar for the microbudget market, and is easily one of the most unique, interesting and memorable new releases thus far in 2016.
Harvest Lake will make its European premiere at the Nocturna Madrid International Fantastic Film Festival. It’s available on limited edition Blu-ray, and on demand via the Vimeo embed below: this is only in certain regions at present, but will be worldwide from May 30th.
Harvest Lake from Bandit Motion Pictures on Vimeo.