‘This clown will make you die laughing.’
Blood Harvest – also released as Nightmare – is a 1987 American slasher horror film directed by Bill Rebane (The Demons of Ludlow; The Capture of Bigfoot; The Giant Spider Invasion) from a screenplay by Ben Benson and Emil Joseph.Vinegar Syndrome
The movie stars musician Tiny Tim (of Tiptoe Through the Tulips fame) in the one and only feature film he starred in and Peter Krause appeared in his first feature film role.
Blood Harvest is also the first picture made by Bill Rebane in which he departed from his general family audience horror with more graphic violence and nudity not seen in his previous films.
Vinegar Syndrome will be releasing Blood Harvest as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on October 30. The movie has been restored in 4K from its 16mm original camera negative. It features reversible cover art. Special features:
Audio commentary with producer/co-writer Leszek Burzynski (new)
Tiny Tim in Niagara Falls on September 3, 1987
Booklet featuring an essay by Tiny Tim biographer Justin A. Martell
On 12 March 2018, Blood Harvest was released on Blu-ray in the UK by 88 Films.
Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk
In the UK, the BBFC censored the 1989 Screen Entertainment VHS release – which featured a double-sided sleeve – by a whopping 2 minutes 51 seconds.
Review:
Whether you find anything to enjoy in this startlingly amateurish attack on the eyes depends on two things; if you find clowns scary (something which has always been lost on me), or if you find Tiny Tim entertaining (guilty).
The plot isn’t worth mentioning – Tiny appears as Marvelous Mervo the clown. Surely this is all you need to know? He got the role whilst appearing in a circus himself in the mid-’80s (he went on before the horses’ act) and was spotted by director Bill Rebane.
Tiny does sing and play ukulele for a bit but the complexities of acting prove a little too much – a cavalier attitude to the script (probably a good thing) and mouthing the other actor’s lines are all par for the course. The other actors, amazingly, are even worse than Tiny. Stunning!
The American Retromedia DVD release features extras in which no-one apologises or looks in the least bit sheepish, and for this anarchic attitude alone it’s clearly required viewing for aficionados of obtuse filmmaking.
Daz Lawrence, MOVIES and MANIA
Buy DVD: Amazon.com
Other reviews:
” …Blood Harvest is still sufficiently enjoyable for what it is as the additions of Tiny Tim’s disarmingly creepy performance and some sleazy, grottily staged bloodletting lend an off-kilter, slightly warped and worrying entertainment value to what would otherwise have been a fairly run of the mill mid-eighties, straight to video slasher yarn.” Cult Movie Forums
Ten more forgotten 80s slashers:
