Elizabeth Harvest (2018)

Elizabeth Harvest (2018) – How can a film that’s so good for over an hour have a last half-hour so bad that it ruins everything?

Okay! Sebastian Gutierrez is a pretty interesting director in his own right, I think. I liked Women in Trouble (2009); Rise (2007) is not bad and quite intriguing. He gives vampires yet another dimension.

I haven’t yet seen City of Sin (2016), Hotel Noir (2012), A Girl Walks into a Bar (2011), or Judas Kiss (1998). It seems to me that this director loves Carla Gugino & Malin Akerman! They’ve both acted in quite a few of his films.

Abbey Lee is not an extraordinary actress. She’s cruelly lacking in charisma, it seems to me. It’s crazy because I don’t remember her in any of the other films I’ve seen!

Well, I didn’t really like The Dark Tower (2017), but I have no doubt that the books are good, given that they are by the great master Stephen King.

Abbey Lee Kershaw was her full name. Born on 12 June 1987, she is an Australian model, actress, and musician. Her father is Kim Kershaw. She gave up using her surname, Kershaw, in 2015, which is a good thing because my favorite singer is Nik Kershaw… and I wouldn’t have wanted to link those two artists, no offense!

I think she’s probably a better model or singer than actress. But I wouldn’t put it past her, and I can change my mind. She’s in Old (2021), which isn’t M. Night Shyamalan‘s worst film, but it’s not his best either. She’s in the Lovecraft Country series, which seems to have disappointed… Lovecraft fans!

She also starred in The Neon Demon (2016), which I hated, as well as Gods of Egypt (2016). As you can see, I don’t think films with Abbey Lee will ever be a priority for me!

That said, here, I find it hard to say whether she’s playing badly… or whether it’s the specific and particular problem of her protagonist that makes her play like that. I don’t think the answer is very hard to find.

With ‘Elizabeth Harvest’, Sebastian Gutierrez revisits the folk tale ‘Bluebeard’ and offers his version of the traditional story of the fair maiden and her Prince Charming who takes her to his castle, except that here there is no castle, just a big, beautiful house that harbors many secrets, including a mysterious room that Elizabeth is forbidden to enter. A modern castle that quickly becomes a fortress from which it seems impossible to escape. The director mixes genres (thriller, science fiction, drama) and draws inspiration from many films, both in terms of themes and style.

A cold style that contributes to the oppressive feeling of certain scenes in the first part because the second part is much less effective. Because, yes, I really liked the beginning. It’s mysterious without being too mysterious because the plot is quickly revealed. But the director loses his way with this theme over and over again and also has a lot of trouble following it up.

In the end, he goes from an extraordinary film to a very classic one. It starts off really well but doesn’t go the distance. Nonetheless, it’s easy to follow thanks to a well-managed camerawork and elegant, meticulous direction.

The plot is not at all uninteresting, although not necessarily innovative for connoisseurs of the genre, namely the subject of genetic manipulation. It’s hard to get into the plot of the film without giving away its mysteries. And it’s when these mysteries are unraveled that the story loses interest and the pace begins to falter.

The eerie, oppressive atmosphere is fairly well maintained, as are the disturbing characters, but as the script is based on a series of twists and turns peppered with flashbacks, I ended up losing track of the plot by getting lost in this meander of explanations that make the film too complex and hard to follow. The film is further hampered by very poor dubbing (in French) with very unnatural pronunciation, especially of the main characters. I should have seen it in VO.

Ciarán Hinds has excellent charisma. He’s a cross between Al Pacino and Javier Bardem. He has the best French dubbing. There’s Carla Gugino, of course, but also Dylan Baker, who is a pleasure to watch.

A film that could have been excellent but squandered its incredible potential.