Blood Harvest (film)
A 1987 slasher featuring Tiny Tim as a clown.
Blood Harvest is a 1987 American slasher film directed by Bill Rebane. It is notable for starring the eccentric singer and ukulele player Tiny Tim in a dramatic role, and for featuring Peter Krause in his first feature film appearance. The film follows a young woman who returns to her hometown and becomes the target of a masked stalker, with a plot involving family secrets, a clown persona, and a series of murders.
- Release year
- 1987
- Director
- Bill Rebane
- Starring
- Tiny Tim, Itonia Salochek, Lori Minnetti
- Notable debut
- Peter Krause (first feature film role)
- Alternate titles
- Nightmare, The Marvelous Mervo
- Filmed in
- Gleason, Irma, and Merrill, Wisconsin
- Home media
- Blu-ray released by Vinegar Syndrome in October 2018
Lore & Background
Blood Harvest opens with the death of Gary and Merv's parents, seemingly murdered. Jill Robinson returns from college to her small hometown, where her father, a banker, has been foreclosing on family farms. She finds her parents missing and her house vandalized. She encounters Merv, who is dressed as a clown and calls himself 'The Marvelous Mervo', and his brother Gary, her childhood neighbor and one-time lover. Jill experiences harassment and stalking from a masked figure, and is drugged and photographed nude while unconscious. Her fiancé Scott arrives, makes sexual advances, and later disappears after following a figure into a barn. Sarah, Jill's friend, is killed in the barn. Gary suggests Scott and Sarah eloped, but Jill is drugged again. The masked figure is revealed to be Gary, who has been killing those close to Jill. Merv shows Jill a suicide note from his and Gary's parents, revealing their deaths were staged. Merv shoots Gary, but Gary is later shown still alive.
Reader's Guide
Blood Harvest is a low-budget slasher film that has gained a cult following, largely due to the presence of Tiny Tim in a non-musical role. Allmovie described it as 'an obvious stab at a piece of the dwindling slasher market shot on cheap, grainy stock with a small, amateur cast,' noting that fans of Tiny Tim's music might find his performance depressing, while others could enjoy it as a 'wretched slasher fiasco' providing derisive laughs. The film was shot in three Wisconsin locations and released on January 1, 1987. It was later licensed for use in the 2022 video game High on Life, where its opening scene appears on a television in the game. A Blu-ray version with a new 4k scan of the original 16mm negative was released by Vinegar Syndrome in October 2018, with special features. The film's legacy rests on its oddity and the novelty of Tiny Tim's involvement.
Did You Know?
- Peter Krause made his first feature film appearance in Blood Harvest.
- The film was shot in three Wisconsin locations: Gleason, Irma, and Merrill.
- Alternate titles for the film include 'Nightmare' and 'The Marvelous Mervo'.
- The opening scene of Blood Harvest appears in the 2022 video game High on Life.
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