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Blood Harvest (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review

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    Ian Jane
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  • Blood Harvest (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review

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    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: October 30th, 2018.
    Director: Bill Rebane
    Cast: Tiny Tim, Itonia Salcheck, Frank Benson, Dean West, Lori Minetti, Peter Krause
    Year: 1962
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    College girl Jill (Itonia Salcheck) has just returned to her small home town after a stint away at school to find that her father, the town banker responsible for a string of foreclosures lately, and mother are missing. She asks the town sheriff (Frank Benson) about it, but he's more interested in making it to his softball game on time than in helping her out.

    Without much else to do, Jill reconnects with her childhood friend Gary (Dean West), a seemingly nice enough guy who has always had a crush on her. He and his brother, Merv (Tiny Tim), live alone now that their parents have disappeared. Merv, upset by this and by the fact that some of his animal friends were killed, now spends almost all of his time 'in character' as Marvelous Mervo, a strange clown. He's a friendly guy, if more than a little creepy… and obviously damaged goods. From there, Jill hangs out with her friend Sarah (Lori Minetti) and they talk about Jill's new boyfriend Scott (Peter Krause). After that little hangout, Sarah disappears, Scott shows up, and tensions between Jill and Gary start to mount. Before you know it, someone is poking about Jill's family home killing people in increasingly grisly fashion…

    Directed by Bill Rebane (read our interview with him here), Blood Harvest is a reasonably effective low budget slasher shot, like most of the director's films, in rural Wisconsin. The authentic farm settings lend the production some appreciable atmosphere. The barn where the killings take place, for example, is sufficiently creepy and desolate looking and the fact that Jill's home is in the middle of nowhere lends believability to the fact that it's seemingly a magnet for danger. The movie was made on a low budget, that much is obvious in some of the lighting and effects featured in the picture, but to Rebane's credit he manages to create some gritty, dark atmosphere in the picture. The film also has some amusing eighties details in it - check out the posters on the room in Jill's bedroom and see if you can find all three Garfields, a Commando one-sheet and a portrait of Robin Williams!

    As far as the performances go, Itonia Salcheck makes for a pretty decent scream queen. She's got a bit of charisma, she handles the material well and delivers a pretty solid lead. She's quite attractive as well, which never hurts. Dean West is a little hokey as the 'old boyfriend' and Peter Krause reasonably forgettable as the 'new boyfriend' but Frank Benson is amusing in his supporting role as the sheriff (essentially a comic relief character).

    Of course, the real reason - in fact, the main reason - you'd want to see this film in the first place is for the presence of Tiny Tim. He delivers most of his lines with at least a hint of his trademark falsetto/vibrato vocal style and contributes some music to the film as well. While seeing Tim cast here might at first seem like a novelty, the fact of the matter is that he's far and away the best part of the movie. He's got a naturally creepy screen presence when he's all made up as 'Mervo' and anytime he's on screen, the movie is strangely mesmerizing.

    Note that the version of the film that was previously released in North America was Bill Rebane's preferred 'director's cut' of the film and it was shorn of some of the stronger nudity and violence. The version contained on this Blu-ray release from Vinegar Syndrome is the complete uncut version of the film, which means that Salcheck's nude scenes are intact and that the throat slitting scene that takes place in the barn is presented in its entirety.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Blood Harvest was previously released on Blu-ray by 88 Films in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer. Vinegar Syndrome's issue, which is taken from a 4k scan of the original 16mm negative, is framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p high definition with the feature taking up just over 25GBs of space on the 50GB disc. The framing looks good here, we really only lose some extra empty space, no real important picture information. As to the quality of the image itself, it's strong. The picture is as grainy as you'd expect a 16mm source to be but there's a lot of strong detail here and good texture as well. There's some decent depth to the image as well, not in every shot but in a few of the outdoor sequences. Colors are reproduced quite naturally and skin tones look accurate. Black levels are fine as well. There's no obvious noise reduction here at all, nor are there any noticeable issues with compression artifacts or edge enhancement.

    The only audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono track. Optional English subtitles are included. Audio quality is fine. Dialogue is easy enough to understand and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion and the levels are properly balanced.

    Extras start off with an exclusive commentary track featuring producer/co-writer Leszek Burzynski moderated by Joe Rubin. They start off by talking about how and when Burzynski first met Tiny Tim and what he brought to the movie. Burzynski also talks about his relationship with Bill Rebane, and how they both contributed to the directing aspect of the production. He also talks about how he directed British television (a sitcom called Father's Day) before then going on to do some shorts at Paramount around the time he started working the United States. Burzynski also talks about the differences between working for Channel 4 and the BBC in the UK, how he came to meet and work with Rebane, how this picture differs from other Rebane films in that it's sleazy and fairly sex-obsessed, how the different cast members came to be involved and what they were like, the significance of Tiny's character being a clown, bringing the film to market at Cannes where a Japanese distributor liked it but wanted 'more cruelty' added to the picture and some interesting stories about Rebane's background, his father in particular.

    The disc also contains a featurette called Every Critic Is Gonna Butcher It, which is an archival interview with Tiny Tim discussing Blood Harvest. This three-minute piece, shot in Niagara Falls in 1987, sees the tiny one talking about Rebane's directorial credits, before then giving out his phone number and talking to the press about how the film will likely be savaged by the critics.

    If that weren't enough, we also get a full set that runs over an hour where Tiny Tim performs live inside what may or may not be a circus tent from a performance that took place in Niagara Falls, NY on September 3rd, 1987. Again, Tim puts his all into his performance, his vocals are all over the place and it's just completely bizarre… and kind of wonderful. He even does Oh, Canada.

    Menus and chapter selection close out the disc.

    As to the packaging, orders purchased directly from Vinegar Syndrome get a beautifully horrifying slipcover as well as some cool reversible sleeve art. Additionally, inside the red Blu-ray case there's a four-page essay from Justin A. Martell entitled 'Marvelous Mervo, At Your Service…' in which Tiny Tim's biographer presents some welcome background information on how Tiny Tim wound up starring in a slasher movie, Rebane's thoughts on working with the man and quite a bit more - it's a good read and a nice inclusion on this release.

    The Final Word:

    Blood Harvest is a fairly conventional slasher film made interesting mainly by the presence of Tiny Tim - who thankfully gets quite a bit of screen time here. The movie is also surprisingly sleazy, going harder with the nudity than you'd probably expect given the director's other, more family-friendly films. Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release looks and sounds very nice indeed - and it contains nice selection of extras, most of which are focused on the film's most unusual star.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blood Harvest Blu-ray screen caps!































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