Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire is a 2024 American horror mockumentary film directed by Stuart Ortiz. The film blends elements of true crime and horror, following the resurgence of a serial killer known as "Mr. Shiny" after a 20-year absence. Set in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the plot centers around a detective pair on the trail of the murderer, who leaves cryptic clues at the crime scenes.

Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire
Festival release poster
Directed by	Stuart Ortiz
Written by	Stuart Ortiz
Starring	Peter Zizzo Terri Apple Andy Lauer Matthew Peschio
Cinematography	Seth Fulleer
Edited by	Stuart Ortiz
Music by	Sarah Decourcy
Release date	September 22, 2024 (2024-09-22) (Fantastic Fest)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

The film follows two detectives as they investigate the reappearance of the elusive serial killer "Mr. Shiny," who terrorized Southern California decades prior. Utilizing found footage and faux true-crime documentary techniques, Strange Harvest follows a typical narrative found in true crime documentaries, while staying vague as to what is fact or fiction.

A post credit scene teases a possible twist to the ending and leaves room for another film, and possibility of more films in a "shared world".

Production

Ortiz came up with the idea for Strange Harvest after seeing the rise in popularity of the Netflix miniseries Tiger King, noting the public's interest in true crime and that "Tiger King at the core is a true crime story, even though it's so absurd and has a lot of comedic elements." While writing the script Ortiz wanted the film to retain as much of the traditional documentary format as possible, as he "wanted to do something that just kind of captured the essence of a modern documentary." Ortiz also drew upon H.P. Lovecraft as an inspiration, including the "Mr. Shiny" name as a reference to a Lovecraft character, as well as True Detective season one, The Silence of the Lambs, the Zodiac Killer, and Stephen King.

Actors Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple were brought on to portray two of the film's central characters. In an interview with Bleeding Cool Zizzo stated that he viewed episodes of Detective Joe Kenda's show on Discover+ to prepare for the character, as Ortiz wanted the detectives to feel realistic. During filming Ortiz experienced some challenges due to the different formats needed for the mockumentary format; some of the shots were also ruined by the filming location used for interviews. Ortiz used a large warehouse for this and was occasionally interrupted by random sounds from outside the building.

Release

The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2024.

Reception

Critical reception for Strange Harvest has been positive and the movie currently holds a rating of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 17 reviews. Collider rated the film favorably, drawing comparisons to The Blair Witch Project for its mockumentary style.

Dread Central praised the film claiming it is “perhaps the best pseudo-documentary since Lake Mungo”, also drawing favorable comparisons to The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

External links

• Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire at IMDb
• Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire at Rotten Tomatoes