Found footage fans rejoice! One half of The Vicious Brothers, the directing duo that brought us Grave Encounters (2011), returns to the familiar format with a curious blend of true crime and the occult.

Director and writer Stuart Ortiz premiered his newest film, Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire, at this year’s Fantastic Fest. In the style of a faux true-crime documentary, Strange Harvest details a string of serial murders that occurred in San Bernardino, California, through a combination of interviews, home video footage, and other methods to create a truly engaging feature. The perpetrator of these crimes is the masked Mr. Shiny, who stumps local law enforcement through his sporadic victim pool, lack of a solid M.O., and cosmic motivations. 

Desperate for a viewing experience that would keep me awake at a midnight screening, Ortiz did not disappoint. Rather than any jump scares, the dread comes from the unsettling feeling you get when you see Mr. Shiny’s mask in the background, and the eerie home invasions and hospital break-ins that will remind you to double check that your windows and doors are locked. Both the corpses and the killings that happen on screen are brutal and not for the weak of heart, conjuring feelings comparable to John Erick Dowdle’s The Poughkeepsie Tapes or Kōji Shiraishi’s Occult. Rather than the lighter tone of Grave Encounters, with its goofy parodied ghost hunting crews, Strange Harvest plays completely straight and does not hold back. This is helped immensely by the detectives Joe Kirby (Peter Zizzo) and Lexi Taylor (Terri Apple), who feel like they could have been plucked from any true crime docuseries you might find on your favorite streaming service. 

As someone who hails from Riverside county, it was exciting to see places with which I am familiar represented in the horror genre. Not that anyone really wants their hometowns associated with occult murders, it was fun, nonetheless. I love when the horror genre can bring the scares right to your front door, which is something that does not happen to me often. With most people who are not from California having never heard of the Inland Empire, other than those who may have watched David Lynch’s Inland Empire (which is ironically set in LA, NOT the Inland Empire), I think it is refreshing for viewers to be exposed to the landscapes that are not the sandy beaches or Hollywood hills.

As an avid found footage fan, I can see myself coming back to this film time and time again. Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire combines gruesome realism and cosmic horrors to create an effective and chilling film that is sure to become an instant found footage cult classic. 13 years since he last directed, we are happy to welcome Stuart Ortiz back into our nightmares. 

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Release Date: TBD
Where to Watch: TBD

Vannah Taylor
she/her @sirendeathcult
Lives in Southern California. Loves ballet and films about psychotic women.
Favorite Director: David Lynch
Sign: Aries