I have not read the book with the same name by Norman Partridge that this movie is based on, but I have heard the book is good and the premise was intriguing to me, which got me to watch this movie. I think the movie Dark Harvest (2023) could have been better if I did read the book it is based on, because I thought this movie was standard with promising ideas and cool things that could work, but there were things in the movie that were not fully explained, which made certain events that happen seem confusing. I am not going to say it is the movie's fault, because this stuff might have been in the book it is based on, but since I have not read the book, there were things I did not understand.
The acting is not bad or anything, but the characters were questionable with either the teenagers in the town, the police, or the teenager's parents; the premise involving teenagers being forced to go out and kill this entity known as Sawtooth Jack that appears every Halloween from the corn fields, which seemed like a creepy idea, but most of the movie does not set it up that well other have everyone talk about it as a build up to the day. Most of the time on Halloween is just teenagers running around wearing masks either killing each other or destroying things in town which I was wondering why they were doing that when they have been making a big deal about hunting Sawtooth Jack and stopping him killing people, but instead they are distracted the whole time.
The entity known as Sawtooth Jack did look disturbing with not bad practical effects to have him walk around killing people, and at certain points when catches on fire making some cool camera shots; the idea of him having this old looking pumpkin head was interesting and how he killed people was brutal and bloody. I do not know if this was in the book or not, but there is something that reveals who is making Sawtooth Jack and who is this entity attacking people, but the movie goes through it quickly during the movie's ending along with some of it as a in the credits, but all of it was not making sense because certain things were not explained well and the way it was executed was hard to follow because of how fast it goes by.
If you have read the book Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, then you might like this movie mor than me and understand it more; the movie Dark Harvest (2023) had an intriguing premise with a cool enough entity that can be creepy when needed to be. Certain events needed to be better explained in the movie to understand it better, and some of the characters can be dumb or will do things that are different than what they are supposed to do that involve the plot. As someone who has not read the book, I thought the movie was standard, but I am sure people who have read the book might like this more than me and will be able to follow it more than me.
