BLOOD HARVEST (1985) Blu-ray/DVD Combo
Director: Bill Rebane
Vinegar Syndrome

Wisconsin auteur Bill Rebane takes on the slasher genre with the Tiny Tim star vehicle BLOOD HARVEST on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Jill Robinson (Itonia Salchek) returns home from college to a chilly reception as her banker father has become increasingly unpopular among the locals with the increasing number of farm foreclosures and public auctions. Unable to reach her father or mother, Jill discovers her middle-of-nowhere house graffitied and a hanging scarecrow effigy in the front hall. The sheriff (Frank Benson) is not particularly sympathetic in the first place, but he is all ready to think Jill is seeking attention when he arrives to find the graffiti and scarecrow gone. Her only friends among the locals are café waitress Sarah (Lori Minnetti, Rebane's THE GAME/THE COLD) and pining childhood friend Gary Dickinson (Dean West, Rebane's TWISTER'S REVENGE) who has been left to look after his nutty older brother Merv (Tiny Tim) – who has taken to dressing up as singing clown "Marvelous Mervo" – after the murders of their parents. Jill is already unnerved by a brick through the window and a figure lurking outside at night by the creepy old barn, and probably would be even more bothered had she realized she had been chloroformed in her sleep so that her stalker could take naked Polaroids of her. When her football team captain boyfriend Scott (SIX FEET UNDER's Peter Krause) disappears shortly after going out for beer and Sarah does not make it to her shift after a visit to the house, an increasingly isolated Jill must rely on Gary while fearing that the Marvelous Mervo has more in store for her than a welcome home.

Wisconsin-based director Bill Rebane who tried his hand at science fiction (INVASION FROM INNER EARTH, THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, THE ALPHA INCIDENT) and horror (RANA: THE LEGEND OF SHADOW LAKE, THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT, THE DEMONS OF LUDLOW) before this regional slasher mounted as a star vehicle for Tiny Tim who is pretty much playing himself and so obviously a red herring no matter how many times the film cuts away to him doing his make-up in a mirror Leatherface-style while singing tunes in falsetto. Supporting performances (including Krause who went onto small screen fame including the recent Fox series 9-1-1) are competent but Salchek is awful despite abundant nudity, while Rebane's photography (credited as usual to "Ito") is perfunctory. The film attempts to be diverting but it is just marking time before the final girl encounter with the killer which culminates in the usual "he's not dead yet" final shot.

Unreleased theatrically – with the possible exception of a couple local screenings – and scarce on VHS apart from a United American budget tape and a BBFC-cut UK edition – BLOOD HARVEST achieved much of its more recent notoriety through a lawsuit between Rebane and Retromedia's Fred Olen Ray whose 2003 DVD which was incomplete. Rebane also apparently took issue with Films Around the World who apparently purchased the film's assets from its bankrupt sales agent and licensed the film to Brentwood/BCI who released it first on a four-film, two-disc set titled PSYCHOTIC TENDENCIES and then as part of their three-disc, five-film CRYPT OF NIGHTMARES set – which also included Jose Ramon Larraz's STIGMA and BLACK CANDLES (along with a nonsensical alternate edit titled NAKED DREAMS) along with the Spanish/Italian horror giallo THE EVIL EYE – which was pulled before release although a few copies reached retailers. 88 Films'1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen transfer was an "HD transfer from Director's Original 16mm Vault Materials" while Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer is a 4K scan of the original 16mm camera negatives from rights owner Films Around the World (who reportedly sent 88 Films a cease-and-desist letter). The impending release of the Vinegar Syndrome edition scuttled Rebane's plans for a new director's cut through VCI, despite threats of litigation from the director who has claimed that he still owns the film. The 88 open matte transfer – the film was shot in 16mm but composed with theatrical release in mind – was about what one would expect of a low-budget 16mm film with good close-ups and softer long shots while underexposed shadows and blacks could be murky and highlights blown out with clipping. A lot of scenes played out in long shot with Rebane rarely zooming in, so Vinegar Syndrome's 1.85:1 framing not only lends some sense of composition but also draws us in a bit (uncomfortably so during Tiny Tim's close-ups). The harsh shadows of daylight exteriors and highlights now retain the grain structure of the rest of the image, while the shadows and blacks now reveal degrees of underexposure with the interiors managed better. The pulsing light leaks evident on the left side of the frame in the earlier transfer are also present here. The negative element also includes the original opening credits rather than the recreation in a different font seen on the UK disc. The DTS-HD Master Audio is comparable to the British disc's LPCM 2.0 track, with the tacky synth score and Tiny Tim's falsetto eliciting more chills than the rest of the film. English SDH subtitles are also provided.

While no one was expecting Rebane to do an audio commentary, Vinegar Syndrome's Joe Rudin conducts one with producer/uncredited co-writer Leszek Burzynski. He discusses his beginnings on British television and working under directors like Stephen Frears (DANGEROUS LIAISONS) and Mike Leigh (SECRETS & LIES) and making short films before mounting one of the first independent sitcoms for Channel 4. Marriage took him to New York, and his friendship with producer Christopher Webster (HELLRAISER, HEATHERS) took him to Wisconsin where Webster had established a studio behind such midwestern direct-to-video horrors as SEVERED TIES, MINDWARP, and THE INHERITOR. He does not recall how he met Rebane but recalls not only writing most of the script but also takes responsibility for the direction of shots in which the camera is more mobile and has a cameo as a British priest. Rudin's discussion of how the film differs tonally from Rebane's other films with an emphasis on sexualized violence leads to a surprisingly deep analysis on the part of Burzynski about how he conceived the characters and their motivations (suggesting how much more effective a film he might have made without the gimmick of Tiny Tim and a better budget). He would follow up BLOOD HARVEST with the film TRAPPED ALIVE for Webster's company, while BLOOD HARVEST's original script title BLOOD FARM 1: THE SOWING confirms that the ending shot was intended as an opening to a sequel rather than a de rigueur final shock.

Vinegar Syndrome and 88 Films share the lengthy “Tiny Tim in Niagara Falls Sept. 3, 1987” (71:41), a camcorder distillation of the singer's performance under the big top for Allan C. Hill's Great American Circus. Exclusive to the UK disc is “Behind the Scenes on BLOOD HARVEST” (13:17) which starts with footage of Tim performing "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" for the title sequence of a children's television pilot shot at Shooting Ranch Studio in 1985 as well as a brief interview with him conducted before the shooting of the film in which he discusses his distinctive look, voice, and diverse fandom. Also in this featurette is a short interview with Rebane during the shoot in which he recalls getting Tim for a local concert and the idea of doing a movie with him. He is frank in his assessment that Tim could not act and strangely could not memorize dialogue despite all of the lyrics he knew by heart, and that he had to work within the singer's narrow range and develop dialogue and action on the set. The rest of the featurette consists of a slideshow with another vocal. Also exclusive is “Tiny Tim Performs at the BLOOD HARVEST Wrap Party” (17:15) which includes an Elvis impersonation along with some others in this selection of what is described as nearly two hours of non-stop singing on his part.

Exclusive to the Vinegar Syndrome is "Every Critic is Gonna Butcher It" (3:05), a short distillation of Tiny Tim's comments in which he promotes the film in good humor to a local interviewer. The UK disc might have more Tiny Tim, but the commentary is ultimately more informative than the archival video. Both releases also include a four-page liner notes leaflet by Justin A. Martell distills the background on the film while also providing some information on the director's cut which actually trimmed violence and nudity ostensibly because of Rebane's planned run for governor. Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray/DVD combo has a reversible cover, and the first 1,500 copies ordered directly from Vinegar Syndrome include a slipcase with artwork by Earl Kessler Jr. (Eric Cotenas)

BACK TO REVIEWS

HOME