Search - Harvesters on DVD

A Tale of Two Families

Joshua Koppel | Chicago, IL United States | 02/22/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As the movie opens we see a female jogger get dragged off. The story then switches to the U.S. Marshals and their attempt to capture a gang. At least some of this gang is related. They keep to rural areas and target small businesses for robbery. The Marshals are hot on their heels after one of them causes a ruckus at a strip joint. Then things begin to go worse. Between bickering, a botched theft, a killing, and a broken down car, the gang kidnaps a motorist in hopes of getting a place to rest up for a bit.

Their refuge is the home of a white-bread family. Their bad luck continues as the Marshals remain on their heels and the family proves very hard to control. Soon people are running and being chased and then the tables get turned as the crooks are on the run from the family. The family is even more twisted then they are. Despite their white-bread appearances they are in the business of abducting people and selling their organs on the black market. In their minds a whole bunch of bonuses tried to take over their home. Two desperate families, each out to do the other in and survive. Who gets it, by whom, and who doesn't makes up the final third of the film with twists and turns the whole way.

This was an interesting film. The organ business almost seemed like it should be a surprise. Except the film is called The Harvesters and the tag line is that They Want Your Body... Parts. So it's not a surprise. There were also a few odd scenes thrown in where badly computer-generated scenes were thrown in. On is a car driving past the strip club. Another (and the most fake looking) is a car driving up to the house and turning off its lights. I don't know why these scenes were handled this way but it was jarring and hurt the flow of the film. Still the film had some charm. It had some of the feeling of Parents or The People Under The Stairs but was not quite up to their levels. A lot of nudity was thrown in (the bathtub scene was unneeded), cat fights, gore, creative deaths, lots of running all wrapped around a plot that was plausible. If you like films with creative body counts then you will probably like this one"