A gang led by lesbian Gulf War veteran Frankie Falzone (Donna Sherman) is forced to flee town when a convenience store robbery goes wrong. They hijack Layla (Jaime Kalman) for her car and force her to lead them to her parents’ house in the woods. This is extremely bad luck for Frankie and her gang because Layla’s family, the Peelmans, make their living as organ harvesters. As the Falzone gang are viciously slaughtered one by one and the cops are quickly closing in, Frankie must rely on her military training to defeat the psychotic Peelman family and get out alive.

Oh, this one is frustrating. Harvesters is served up with some great camera work and some nice soft focus and grain effect added to "age" the digital video it was shot on. Even the digital fog can’t hide the colorful and ambitious lighting (overly dark scenes excluded). As you may have guessed, the CGI effects are blatantly obvious and don’t gel at all with the homemade feel of the film. There are enough shots of a digital helicopter and an embarrassing looking landmine explosion to get any community college computer graphics student salivating big time.

The film’s first big hindrance is the editor’s refusal to allow the Harvesters to be a minute less than an hour and a half. There’s just not enough hackneyed dialogue ("Sorry babe, we need your wheels.") and transvestite strip club owners to make up for the overlong running time. I simply can’t understand why indie filmmakers are encouraged (or forced, whatever) to stretch an hour’s worth of material to the breaking point.

Harvesters second problem is the inexperience of the actors. Sure, this happens a great deal in indie films but there are a few performers here that destroy everything scene they take part in. I’m talking, of course, about the two U.S. Marshals, played by Patty Cipoletti and Joe Ripple (the director himself). Their scenes of investigation are dull to the point of aggravation. Their death scenes (and oh boy do they ever die!) inspired no less than a standing ovation simply because it meant that Harvesters could finally move on without them mucking everything up.

If anything, Harvesters is a near miss. A typical exploitation flick plot, a willingness to throw some gore and nudity around, a gaggle of sleaze-ball characters, and a gratuitous fanny pack just aren’t enough to rescue the film from its own padding. Characters spend a massive amount of time looking for other characters which stomps any remote chance of tension into the forest floor. Highlights of the film include Betty Peelman’s kitchen attack, one pitchfork crotch impalement, and a nice bloody bathtub masturbation fantasy. Other than that, viewers can expect to be bored out of their wits waiting for something to happen. Harvesters works best as an ode to the exploitation flicks of yesteryear as evidenced by the rockin’ title theme playing over the credits.

DVD Stuff

The Harvesters DVD includes a 30 minute featurette about the making of the film. This is a very in-depth look at the making of the film and it covers pre-production, filming, and post-production. There are also some trailers on the DVD. Both sound and video (full frame) are very clear.