This film by the famous author of low-budget thrillers and horror films John Keyes is remarkable for several things. First, the cast. The film is engaged at once 3 stars – Dominic Swain, Udo Kir and David Carradine. Of course, these stars are not on a Hollywood scale, but, nevertheless, quite famous actors.
Second, Udo Kir as a maniac. Since his identity is not hidden at all, it will not be a spoiler to write that a mad artist named Picasso performed by Cyrus looks like an infernal villain. The razor as the murder weapon and the black cloak and hat are like references to the Jallo. Of course, the murders themselves are filmed without visual delights, and the emphasis is not even on them, but on the confrontation between Christie and the killer, who saw in her appearance his main masterpiece.
Thirdly, the main action takes place inside a closed office building for the holidays, so that the characters are a few and can not be said that they are all well described. For example, a couple of lovers somehow quickly drop out of the game, not really having time to open up. But the guard performed by David Carradine is memorable, but largely thanks to the charisma of the honored actor, known not only for the role of Bill in Tarantino.
The action in the film of Keyes sometimes stalls, the work is elementary lack of atmosphere and suspense, but, nevertheless, the film is memorable, especially against the background of many other frankly faded low-budget thrillers. The most interesting is the character of Kira. Udo has a diabolical charm and a hypnotic look, so he is simply created for such roles. At the same time, Cyrus was not satisfied with filming only in horrors, and played a lot in the author's cinema, as his friends Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Lars von Trier, and Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant, Miklos Jancho. He also starred at the master gallo Dario Argento. Alas, John Keyes has no talent comparable to Argento, so one can only dream of such insane masterpieces of the genre as “Bird with Crystal Feather” and “Bloody-Red”. Moreover, the theme of the artist-killer is quite used in horror – Hershell Gordon Lewis in 1965 shot a similar film “Paint me blood-red”, which remained a bright milestone in the history of cinema. With John Keyes's film, it's silly to demand the same, but as a film for the evening, "Deathly Harvest" is quite appropriate.
Summing up, we can say that we have a strong middle peasant. Its main advantages in a strong cast and an interesting image of the villain, as well as in a very dynamic first half of the film. But then the pace slows down, and the director does not always manage to hold the viewer’s attention. Perhaps a shorter duration of the tape would be good.
6.5 out of 10