‘Harvest Brood’ is a Remarkable Work of Lo-Fi Aesthetic Appeal: A Review
You’ll either get into, or you won’t. There’s not much middle ground here.
Table of Contents
What is Harvest Brood About?
Through the use of pseudo-documentary and splatter-movie narrative structures, Harvest Brood chronicles the story of a series of unusual and brutal murders that took place in a small Alabama town during 2006.
In the days leading up to Halloween in 2006, the town of Briar, Alabama was rocked by a spate of gruesome killings. Through interviews and dramatizations, we learn about how the murders might be tied to the local legend of the “four mutant beings.” It’s suggested that the mutated monsters are the result of the town’s tragically dark past, and one detective’s investigation leads him to confronting the creatures face to rotten face.
Harvest Brood is from no-budget indie filmmaker Joe Meredith. Joe’s fingerprints are on every aspect of the movie, from directing, writing, and editing, to the musical score, creature design, and special effects. Robin File co-stars as Sloan, a police detective who digs into the town’s history to try to find answers about the current murders. Cidney Meredith co-stars as Jax, a woman who wanders into Briar and is targeted by a masked monster with an axe.
Harvest Brood Review
Harvest Brood is all about the lo-fi aesthetic appeal. If you’re into no-budget, shot-on-video horror movies from the 1990s, this is a must-watch. It’s the most genuine recreation of that niche and era that I’ve seen in a long time. If someone put this on a VHS tape and handed it to me, I’d believe it was actually made decades ago (but only if I ignored the dates and structure, but I’ll get to that a little later).
Harvest Brood should also appeal to fans of atmospheric analog horror. The film utilizes creepy lore, grotesque creatures, and eerie soundscapes to create the perfect mood. This is a movie best watched late at night when everything is dark and quiet.
For people who aren’t as into analog horror and vintage no-budget movies, Harvest Brood might be a tougher sell. Despite being 100% appropriate for the tone the movie achieves, the acting can be somewhat stilted. The gore effects, too, range from surprisingly effective to obviously fake. But again, that’s the point. That’s what it’s supposed to look like. You’ll either appreciate it or not. Personally, I love it.
The one thing I have a hard time getting around is the execution of the premise when combined with the chosen narrative structure. From the trailer and its accompanying description, I expected Harvest Brood to be more of a straightforward pseudo-documentary, but it doesn’t work very well as that. We’re told the events happened in 2006, and interview segments are clearly supposed to take place many years after that. But the entire movie is shot on what appears to be VHS, even though the documentary was supposedly made sometime in the 2010s or even later. It’s possible I suppose, but the format feels strange for the stated time period.
Also, it never fully feels like a documentary, nor does it fully feel like a narrative film. It’s a mishmash of two styles. The story segments are not found footage, so at first I tried to rationalize them as dramatizations of what supposedly happened in 2006. But that doesn’t really work either. Harvest Brood is a combination of two incongruent story structures, with an aesthetic that feels like it exists in an incongruent space in time. And you know what? Whether that was intentional or not, it kind of works in its favor.
The subject matter of the story deals with creatures and lore that feel like they shouldn’t exist in our world, but they do. They exist, and no amount of rationalization will make them go away. It’s not meant to be explained, it’s intended to be felt. It’s like Harvest Brood is a nightmare that somehow found its way into the real world. It’s not quite reality, but it’s enthralling if you can meet it on its own wavelength.
Rating and Recommendation
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5
You’ll either love Harvest Brood, or you won’t care much about it. It’s not that it’s a divisive movie, it’s just that it’s made for a very particular type of horror fan. Giving this movie a star rating is difficult and kind of pointless. The best way to see if you want to spend just under an hour with Harvest Brood is to take a look at the trailer. If the vibe grabs you, you’ll enjoy the full movie.
Harvest Brood is streaming on YouTube via Joe Meredith’s channel.
Further Reading
- The Last Cabin is an Admirable Found Footage Effort: A Review
- Frogman Review: A Gloriously Fun Found Footage Creature Feature
- Match (2025) Might Gross You Out, but There’s Some Good Suspense and Horror Here: A Review
- 7 Deeply Upsetting Dark Documentaries to Stream With Caution
- New/Upcoming Horror Movies
- Best and Worst Horror Movies of 2025
