Elizabeth Harvest

Elizabeth Harvest is a 2018 science-fiction thriller film that was written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez. The film premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2018, and stars Abbey Lee as the titular Elizabeth, a young woman who discovers that her new husband is hiding secrets.

Elizabeth Harvest
Theatrical poster
Directed bySebastian Gutierrez
Written bySebastian Gutierrez
StarringAbbey Lee
Dylan Baker
Matthew Beard
Carla Gugino
Ciarán Hinds
Music byRachel Zeffira
CinematographyCale Finot
Edited byMatt Mayer
Production
companies
Automatik
Motion Picture Capital
Voltage Pictures
Distributed byIFC Films
Front Row Filmed Entertainment
Release date
  • March 10, 2018 (2018-03-10) (SXSW)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The film opens with Elizabeth Kellenberg, a new bride, being brought home by her husband Dr. Henry Kellenberg on their wedding day. The home is palatial and staffed only by two workers, Claire and Oliver. Elizabeth's life is initially idyllic and Henry tells her that she can enter any room except one, located in the basement, before leaving for work. Initially entertained by clothing, jewellery, and the house's luxuries, Elizabeth's curiosity gets the better of her and she explores the forbidden room, where she discovers clones of herself. When Henry returns home he quickly discovers her deceit and murders Elizabeth. Six weeks later, another clone is awoken and goes through the same experiences, except she manages to kill Henry before he can kill her. When Oliver and Claire arrive they find out what happened, and Claire has a heart attack and is whisked away to the hospital.

Oliver, who is blind, asks Elizabeth to read Claire's journal for him. He imprisons her until she does it. The journals reveal that the original Elizabeth was Henry's wife, but she died of a rare medical condition. So Henry created clones of her, and hired Claire to help him cure the medical condition for the clones. The initial attempts were unsuccessful, but eventually they succeed. Including the ones who have been killed, Henry and Claire have officially awoken five clones, the fifth being the current Elizabeth. It is also revealed that Claire suspects that Oliver is actually a clone of Henry.

Elizabeth details this to Oliver, who states that Henry blinded him out of jealousy because of the way Oliver looked at some of the other Elizabeth clones. Elizabeth then attacks Oliver and starts to escape, when a new Elizabeth clone appears, holding a shot gun. Confused and unaware of what had been going on, the new clone shoots and kills Oliver by accident. Elizabeth V manages to make it outside, where she is shot and killed by the new clone, only just managing to whisper something to the clone before her death. A flashback is shown depicting Henry and Claire discussing the cloning experiments. Claire discovers that Henry is now just trying to relive his wedding night and then sadistically murder the clones, which he claims is without consequence due to his real wife dying years ago. He also does not view them as real except in the moment of their death, which horrifies Claire. The new Elizabeth clone, Elizabeth VI is then shown reading the journal, implying that Elizabeth V's last words were for her to read the book.

The film ends with Claire returning to the house, where the sixth clone gives her the journal, telling her to do something better with the research before leaving the house and setting out on her own.

Cast

Reception

Critical reception for the film has been mixed and the movie holds a rating of 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews and an average of 6.2/10.[1] Multiple reviewers compared the film's storyline to the folk tale "Bluebeard",[2] with Variety praising the performances of Gugino and Lee.[3] Reviewing for RogerEbert.com, Sheila O'Malley gave the movie two stars, criticizing the movie for its slow pace.[4] This story has many similarities to Dean Koontz's Frankenstein novel about Victor Helios and his cloned wife Erica Helios.

References
  1. "Elizabeth Harvest". Rotten Tomatoes.
  2. "Review: In 'Elizabeth Harvest,' Forbidden Rooms and Stylized Mystery". New York Times. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  3. Leydon, Joe (2018-03-27). "SXSW Film Review: 'Elizabeth Harvest'". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  4. O'Malley, Sheila. "Elizabeth Harvest Movie Review (2018)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
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