A faux true-crime documentary about two detectives pursuit of an infamous serial killer named Mr. Shiny, who terrorized Southern California for almost two decades.

Fantastic Fest 2024

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Director Stuart Ortiz Screenwriter Stuart Ortiz Cast Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Any Lauer Editor Stuart Ortiz Director of Photography Seth Fuller Producers Stuart Ortiz, Bruce Guido, Alex Yesilcimen Associate Producers Matthew M. Garcia, Tony Copolillo, Jordan Moser, James Pearce, Stuart Gallachere Executive Producers Michael Karlin, David Karlin, Joseph Paul Latorre, Bruce Guido, Leo Deleon Composer Sarah Decourcy Year 2024 Category Horror, Faux True Crime Documentary Language English Run time 94 min Country of production USA Production companies Adorable Damage, Pathogen Pictures

Stuart Ortiz is an award-winning writer, director, producer and editor. He co-wrote and co-directed the 2011 cult horror film, Grave Encounters, as well Grave Encounters 2 (2012) and Extraterrestrial (2014). He co-wrote and produced It Stains the Sands Red (2016), which won "Best Film, Midnight Extreme" at SITGES that year. He has won 2 Golden Trailer Awards for his work in film and television marketing.

In my first film Grave Encounters, we used the found footage medium to try and present a fantastical supernatural story, as if the events actually happened. By utilizing the aesthetic and style of reality TV, we also gave the audience an easy entry point of familiarity and context, to subvert their expectations. It was fun to blur the lines between reality and fiction, and we worked hard to maintain the illusion as best we could.

At the time, the approach seemed fresh and it was exciting to engage with a new style of horror film with new types of rules and technique. But a decade later, a gluttony of largely derivative found footage content has turned people off to the approach and spoiled the novelty. And yet, the fondness for this quasi-documentary approach, and my belief it was so perfectly suited for horror never left my mind – even after I went on to be involved with more conventional narrative projects.

When the Covid pandemic hit and "Tiger King" became a run-away success, it felt like documentaries were popular again – people were more enamored by the idiosyncratic true-crime story of Joe Exotic and his tigers then they were with faltering big budget blockbusters. It was in this climate that the first inspirations of Strange Harvest took root.

The true-crime doc format, like found footage with Grave Encounters, could allow me to examine a fantastical uncanny scenario from a different vantage point than would ever be possible in a traditional horror movie. I could stew in world building and exposition – totally geek out - my imagination running wild with possibilities.

It also solved one of the problems I always had when approaching a story about a serial killer and the occult – the material simply being too outlandish and gratuitous, no matter how well it was portrayed. By viewing events from the cold detachment of a documentary, a safe space where commentary added context to the proceedings, there would be a much higher tolerance for the madness and macabre I intended to conjure.

It is my goal with Strange Harvest to take the audience on a rollercoaster ride unlike any they’ve gone on before. I don’t pull any punches with the film and attempt to present a spooky true-crime story as convincingly – and disturbingly – as possible. I hope people think it’s real. I want to raise the bar for suspension of disbelief.

-- Stuart Ortiz

“A frighteningly organic faux documentary with some seriously sick serial killer imagery, twisted gore visuals, and supernatural influences.” --Collider

“Ortiz pushes the subgenre forward with a heady and unsettling immersion into the realm of true crime, with a distinctly horror twist.” –Bloody Disgusting

“Strange Harvest, meanwhile, achieves a rare, masterful synergy of the true crime and horror genres and is likely to satisfy fans of both overwhelmingly.” –The HoloFiles

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