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Clowns have had a bad reputation and have been considered the worst for a while now. For children, these entertainers can be extremely nightmare-inducing, and for adults, they can be off-putting. Horror storytellers have relied on the unnerving aspect of a clown’s painted grinning face for centuries. Bill Rebane, a B-movie director, tried to bring a horror-centric clown to life in the form of a movie called Blood Harvest. This was nineteen eighty-seven.
One day Jill returns to her family farm after college, only to find it empty as her parents are missing. The local sheriff isn’t the most helpful either, so in all hope, she wishes that they show up, which they unfortunately don’t. To Jill’s dismay, a local clown by the name of the Marvelous Mervo starts appearing in her life. As the movie progresses, Jill slowly begins to meet terrible allies who start getting murdered in an abandoned barn. Alongside the bloodshed, a murderer is stalking Jill. The only stable person she has is Gary, Mervo’s brother and her childhood friend. Gary, instead of supporting Jill when she is at her lowest, decides to take advantage of the situation.
To begin with, which community allows a clearly disturbed man in a clown costume to wander around without any restrictions whatsoever? Quite often he just walks into Jill’s house and it’s simply treated as a normal occurrence. In any case, obscure actor Tiny Tim takes every chance he has to devour the backdrop of Blood Harvest when he plays the lunatic Mervo. He certainly goes a long way in making this film better than the usual 80’s horror slasher trash. Make no mistake, director Bill Rebane built a career on cheap hastily made horror flicks and he brings that style to this movie as well. Everything is rather by the numbers. Given the type of movie, this is, I do not really believe I am asking for too much when I say I would have preferred a fun gory kill scene. Instead, he cannot even be bothered to ensure that the actors portraying the corpses do not move while in the frame. Blood Harvest does well what many so-regarded horror films fail to do; giving us a leading character who we can actually support. Jill has this charm that endears her to the viewer.
To add, when the last killer is unmasked, he is so much of a creep that you root for her to kick his ass. It’s too bad this is the only time actress Itonia Salcheck dipped her toes into the acting pool.
Although Blood Harvest has its entertaining moments, there’s a reason why plenty of people think it isn’t a good movie, especially with its blatant twist ending. Luckily, the amazing people at Vinegar Syndrome were able to release it on Blu Ray and it has since gained a cult following. It’s no shock that Tiny Tim, a well-known ukulele player, dominates every scene he’s in as the twisted clown Mervo who has become the face of the movie. For years the film was only available in a heavily cut version, but now that Blood Harvest is available in its uncut glory, it’s definitely worth checking out.
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