Movie Review: STRANGE HARVEST

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 9th, 2025 / 01:30 AM

STRANGE HARVEST movie poster | ©2025 Saban Films/Roadside Attractions

Rating: R
Stars: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Jessee Clarkson, Andy Lauer, Janna Cardia, Joel Searls, Brendan James Hanrahan, David Hemphill, Matthew Peschio, Dawsyn Eubanks, Roy Abramsohn
Writer: Stuart Ortiz
Director: Stuart Ortiz
Distributor: Saban Films/Roadside Attractions
Release Date: August 8, 2025

STRANGE HARVEST is done in the style of a true crime documentary. It is (as its closing credits proclaim) entirely fictional, but so solid in its presentation that viewers may be tempted to check some of the facts just to be sure.

We begin with narration by former San Bernardino, California, police detective Joseph Kirby (Peter Zizzo), who speaks ominously about “the case.” There is a brief rundown of San Bernardino County, also known as the Inland Empire, for non-locals. The county is spread out over more than 20,000 miles, with a population of about two million in 2010, when most of STRANGE HARVEST takes place.

When a family is found murdered in their home, with a strange symbol painted on the ceiling, Kirby and partner Alexis Taylor (Terri Apple) realize that “he” is back.

The detectives first began investigating some very weird, brutal murders with the same symbol left at the crime scenes back in 1993. Unable to identify the perpetrator, they had hoped he’d died or at least been imprisoned, but now he’s returned.

Director/writer Stuart Ortiz uses his chosen format to circumvent logic issues that plague a lot of other “found footage” horror movies, starting with why cameras are still running in situations where most people would stop recording.

Here, sit-down interviews are interspersed with news broadcasts and cellphone, webcam, security camera and law enforcement body cam footage, cut together with narration and subtitles just as a real documentary would.

The casting is also refreshingly realistic, with actors who look and sound like they work in their characters’ professions, instead of more photo shoot-ready cast members. Zizzo and Apple are down to earth, understated and give us the sense that their detectives have had decades of experience on the job. Jessee Clarkson has the inscrutable stare and body language of a truly dangerous man as the object of the search; behind the scenes, Clarkson also serves as the production designer, who does a first-rate job of keeping eras and economic backgrounds straight.

One clue that we’re watching fiction rather than fact is the steady stream of truly gruesome imagery from the crime scenes, along with the wide variety of homicide techniques. It’s visually more bizarre than we’d expect from reality. We even get some effective jump scares.

There are also allusions to cosmic horror that’s come before. The detectives may not recognize the reference to “the shambler from the stars,” but this and a few other hints point toward Lovecraftian mythos.

STRANGE HARVEST benefits from having a more formal structure than the usual found footage feature. It is certainly one of the best examples of the form to come along in a while.

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