User Reviews

I am not sure why this movie has received such a low IMDB rating. I got hooked from the very first scene and since then it was a quite intense ride indeed. There was never a moment I felt bored. I especially found cinematography, editing, and score really fascinating. Setting of the movie in an isolated location only adds to the intrigue of the story. Beautifully done thriller all around.

How anyone can give this film less than a 4 is unbelievable? I was going to give it a 6 but i am giving it a 7 to make up for the stupid low ratings. This film kept me intrigued and was very entertaining...it has been done before but i still enjoyed it. When people are scoring films like The Meg a 10 and giving a film like this a 1....it is hard to take this site seriously. I know everyone can not have the same taste in films...but come on people! This film was not brilliant but it was well worth a watch and was above average

This movie is definitely something different, it was interesting and entertaining and somewhat engaging. Having just watched the movie I'm not sure how I feel about it yet other than I'm glad that I stuck with it, having been interested at first and then puzzled for a little bit until it started unfolding. They went out on a limb with this one and I think they got most of what they wanted, it is a good movie.

I watched this movie last night and I have to say it is growing on me. The more I think about it, the more I like it. I certainly agree it is slow. It's intentionally slow, but excessively so. My wife gave up on it because of this. After making it through the whole movie, here is what I like:

It has some plot twists that are unexpected, but also make sense in the context of the movie. They don't come out of nowhere and I like the backstory the twists add.

The acting, especially by the lead actress, is great. I really thought she brought Elizabeth to life.

The brooding cinematography set the stage for the confined nature of the film. It was not excessively depressing though.

Overall, not a perfect movie, but I liked it a lot.

Elizabeth (Abbey Lee) is the new trophy wife of rich, older Henry (Ciarán Hinds). He carries his new bride over the threshold of his high-tech remote hilltop manson. Local cop Logan (Dylan Baker) is his close friend. Claire (Carla Gugino) and Oliver (Matthew Beard) are the two caretakers.

The first hour is a good Black Mirror episode. That's what this should have been. The flashback revealing the origin of Elizabeth is mostly unnecessary and slows the pace down too much. The second half could have been compressed with a more thrilling climax. There is a definite decline in tension after an important midway incident.

So this is something of a mixed bag: the girl playing Elizabeth herself is a model not an actress and this is noticeable right from the beginning: she looks pleasant enough standing still but she moves at all times like she's on a catwalk and tends to blow the illusion of whatever scene she's in whenever she starts to talk.

As the movie progresses though, and the first reveal occurs, this starts to seem like it might actually work to the story's advantage. There was another well-known film three years back which I won't mention for fear of spoiling, but it covers some of the same ground and takes one to a similar place but this one doesn't raise any of the same questions or emotional responses, which makes it a much less worthwhile experience.

Ciarán Hinds is good as always, along with Carla Gugino, but Matthew Beard is noticably weakest of all. On top of this there is some odd, clumsy editing, with too many scenes just awkwardly fading to black and slowing down the momentum.

So the film really has one foot in compelling sci-fi and another in bad B-movie drama/ TV soap opera. It's a good premise, though not really original or examined enough to feel groundbreaking, revelatory or even particularly memorable, and after the first twist there's no real point to the story and no interesting place for it to go. It's definitely watchable but largely pointless, and you'll never choose to watch it again.

A woman is whisked away to her new mountain retreat by her enigmatic husband on her wedding day - it is clear everything is not what it should be.

This is a well made film with great acting and production and, to a minor extent, keeps you wondering. It does lack in story though.

The cast and characters are fantastic! Elizabeth is pretty and vapid like a doll - a counter point to Claire who is intelligent and has real sex appeal. Henry and Oliver are also great being both menacing and pathetic in their own ways.

The execution is very tight from Elizabeth's vacant witterings to the dirt under Henry's finger nails.

When all is said and done a lot of the story feels redundant and disjointed. The pace of the film is nice and leisurely setting up the characters with obvious care; but then - to get where the film wants to go - a lot of this has to be churned up.

With all the references to Fairy-tales and a malevolent patriarch this obviously has a theme of female empowerment and may appeal slightly more to a female audience but does not alienate men. Although a little too briefly it also touches on the pain of loss and, despite technology, the inevitability of death.

Almost at the very start, the film gives away what I had thought, based on the lackluster Netflix synopsis, would be the main key/grab of the film. It doesn't constitute a spoiler since it is in the IMDB synopsis and related to the true themes of the film.

A dainty young woman is newlyweds with a large, old rich doctor type. He's supposedly very much in love with her and has a house with biometric locks on all the doors. She can access every door. He asks her gently and politely not to enter one door in particular. Since this is a movie, she goes into that door and discovers a human cloning lab.

For a while after this early revelation, the film just kind of lingers for a bit, repeats itself a bit, and introduces some largely anemic elements like Dylan Baker's character and Ciaran Hinds fulfilling his actorly role in outdoing Sean Bean in terms of character fates.

Then, at some point about 2/3rds of the way through the film, the film finally gets to its main thematic plot and its "twists", but these unfold almost entirely through exposition dumps.

The film essentially gives up with the film adage "show, don't tell" and has everything dumped on us almost all at once in the form of Elizabeth reading diary entries, with flashback sequences, that explain absolutely everything.

It's the sort of thing that most likely would have played out infinitely better in a novel format, or as a very carefully edited TV miniseries. Instead it comes across almost clumsily, less like a masterfully crafted story and more like a compromise to get the core story to be told in a way that isn't completely dense or nonsensical.

With the diary exposition dump, the story is told in full, albeit in a very weak, rushed, unsatisfying way. Without the diary exposition dump, the story is essentially untold, and the events depicted in the film are left up to wild interpretation.

This is a hard case because it's unclear which option would have been superior; a story that holds your hand and has to explain everything because it cannot coherently show you everything, or a story that tells you nothing and shows you almost nothing, effectively doing away with its most relevant themes and messages.

As a whole, it's the kind of story that demands a more focused medium than a 90-120 minute realistic film fixed on a single character's point of view. Otherwise we are better off reading the story for ourselves.

This movie starts off as a chirpy and diabolical scientific clone story, but turns very dark with lots of twists and turns. The movie was very well paced and played out up until the Last 15 or 20 minutes when there is way more questions than answers. Especially, if you are truly paying attention to details towards the end, things do not quite add up and some things that happened are never truly addressed. For example, a severe wound that you have no idea how it got there on one of the characters, or a character's choice that doesn't quite add up without they story expecting you to fill in the blanks on your own.

Elizabeth Harvest has an interesting concept and is intriguing enough to make you want to follow it until the end. The problem is that It doesn't really know how to end or how to go along after a certain point. It premise is its best quality. It ultimately fails when it tries to do too much and it's attempts at double and triple twists fall flat. Stylistically it's pleasant to look at and the acting of Ciaran Hinds is excellent. At the end of the day more complicated doesn't always mean better.

Throw in "Bluebeard", "Alice in Wonderland", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Frankenstein," "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Black Mirror."

Then, mix with some random ideas and a semi-feminist context. Congratulations: You have "Elizabeth Harvest" - a very silly, yet entertaining thriller; thanks to a decent acting from all the actors involved, an effective soundtrack and some really beautiful cinematography going.

Not bad at all. Not great at all. And as I said, still entertaining. If you have nothing better to do with your time, it won't harm you.

A ridiculously young woman who looks, behaves and walks like a 17 year old snatched during her high school lunch break is mysteriously married to a man old enough to be her grandfather. I mean he's old - 50s is being generous, 60s is more likely.

It is evident from the very first scenes that Elizabeth Harvest is meant to be a metaphorical fairy tale, but it also has stylistic influences from classics like Rosemary's Baby and perhaps a whisper of giallo.

Unsurprisingly, the old man is a very bad man, with psychopathic tendencies who keeps wanting to marry a carbon copy of an excruciatingly young woman each time he offs her with a level of domestic violence that is complete overkill.

A very young woman marries an older doctor. In their honeymoon he shows his impressive house and explains that everything belongs to her but there is one room she should never get into. As it obvious she did to and things get very ugly.

Explaining more will ruin the many unpredictable surprises after that event. The movie becomes more interesting and engaging even when its pace is it sometimes a bit slow.

The cast is perfect with the calm tone of the movie. Abbey Lee is surprisingly good in a character that needs to generate empathy and sympathy in order for the movie to work. Ciarán Hinds and Matthew Beard are intriguing and mix of good and diabolic as they can be without much effort. The underrated Carla Gugino perfectly handles a mysterious character whose motivations are unclear until the very end.

The only major critics could be; the pace that is sometimes a bit slow and those looking for pure horror will be disappointed; this is mix of science fiction and horror; but overall there are many interesting things to think about that will stay with you after the movie ends.

In brief; far from shallow a movie that deserves to be seen

Based on similar reviews, I gave this a go and I'm glad I did. It's not a masterpiece, but it's definitely underrated. By any means, it's a well-crafted, entertaining film that's well worth your time. Thought I'd leave this review for anybody in the same position I was before actually watching it.

This is a movie that honestly has 2 main camps: you either love it or hate it. I can see why some may. Its hard to describe the movie without giving it away. The film opens with a couple arriving at a secluded home. The wife is cautioned to not go into one room (though hey she isn't locked out of it). what is found when she enters the room sets the stage for the rest of the film and has several layers of complexity which is how I give it the above title because that is pretty much what the movie is. Its not big on action though there are some light violence scenes. Its more above previous events and subsequent ones.

Worst sound engineering in the history of movies. There is no way to actually hear what they're saying. All the actors mumble and mutter underneath a blaring music track or weird sound effects. I guess if you want to turn on the subtitles and read the movie you can have at it.