First of all, I love your website. It's a walk down a dysfunctional, horror-infused memory lane. I was surprised to see that you haven't reviewed the late 1970s made-for-TV adaptation of Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home. It was called "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" when it aired on the small screen. Bette Davis scared the living hell out of me as the Widow, back in the day. This flick had it all, a secret society, bizarre fertility rituals, an unusual way to guarantee that next year's corn crop will be a success, murder, suicide and a kind of Stepford Wives mentality among the women of this deceptively peaceful village.
— Kelley J.
UNK SEZ: Thanks Kelley! I agree with you, there's not enough HARVEST HOME around these parts and I too am surprised that we have not covered it more extensively on these pages. I'm just going to place the blame on dopey UNIVERSAL for never properly putting TDSOHH on DVD and for releasing it on VHS only in a highly edited form. Luckily I found the entire miniseries on YouTube. The picture quality is for the birds but it'll just have to do for now!
I've never seen the TV movie but I loooooove the book. My family came to America in the 17th century, and I secretly hope there are some Harvest Home type shenanigans in my family tree.
I know, for the love of hell, someone release this 2 part TV-Movie on DVD. I could name at least 10 made-for-TV-movies that would be first day buys for me, that are oddly missing on DVD.
Unk, if you're ever looking to give this film some of that love you speak of but don't know where to start, you should do a comparison article on the striking (EERILY striking) similarities between Harvest Home and The Hunger Games (you rock at doing those, by the way). Clearly the writer was inspired by Harvest Home and it's a bit surprising that it's never been spot-lighted before. There's even a couple of character names in both that ring so close (Everdine and Penrose/Primrose), but that's just the beginning of how close these two films overlap.
Craig, that's brilliant! I'm surprised nobody has noticed that before. Good call!