Wisconsin auteur Bill Rebane takes on the slasher genre with the Tiny Tim star vehicle BLOOD HARVEST on Blu-ray from 88 Films (but not for long).

Jill Robinson (Itonia Salchek) returns home from college to a chilly reception as her banker father has become increasingly unpopular among the locals with the increasing number of farm foreclosures and public auctions. Unable to reach her father or mother, Jill discovers her middle-of-nowhere house graffitied and a hanging scarecrow effigy in the front hall. The sheriff (Frank Benson) is not particularly sympathetic in the first place, but he is all ready to think Jill is seeking attention when he arrives to find the graffiti and scarecrow gone. Her only friends among the locals are café waitress Sarah (Lori Minnetti, Rebane's THE GAME/THE COLD) and pining childhood friend Gary Dickinson (Dean West, Rebane's TWISTER'S REVENGE) who has been left to look after his nutty older brother Merv (Tiny Tim) – who has taken to dressing up as singing clown "Marvelous Mervo" – after the murders of their parents. Jill is already unnerved by a brick through the window and a figure lurking outside at night by the creepy old barn, and probably would be even more bothered had she realized she had been chloroformed in her sleep so that her stalker could take naked Polaroids of her. When her football team captain boyfriend Scott (SIX FEET UNDER's Peter Krause) disappears shortly after going out for beer and Sarah does not make it to her shift after a visit to the house, an increasingly isolated Jill must rely on Gary while fearing that the Marvelous Mervo has more in store for her than a welcome home.

Wisconsin-based director Bill Rebane who tried his hand at science fiction (INVASION FROM INNER EARTH, THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION, THE ALPHA INCIDENT) and horror (RANA: THE LEGEND OF SHADOW LAKE, THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT, THE DEMONS OF LUDLOW) before this regional slasher mounted as a star vehicle for Tiny Tim who is pretty much playing himself and so obviously a red herring no matter how many times the film cuts away to him doing his make-up in a mirror Leatherface-style while singing tunes in falsetto. Supporting performances (including Krause who went onto small screen fame including the recent Fox series 9-1-1) are competent but Salchek is awful despite abundant nudity while Rebane's photography (credited as usual to "Ito") is perfunctory. The film attempts to be diverting but it is just marking time before the final girl encounter with the killer which culminates in the usual "he's not dead yet" final shot.

Unreleased theatrically – with the possible exception of a couple local screenings – and scarce on VHS apart from a United American budget tape and a BBFC-cut UK edition – BLOOD HARVEST achieved much of its more recent notoriety through a lawsuit between Rebane and Retromedia's Fred Olen Ray whose 2003 DVD which was incomplete. Rebane also apparently took issue with Films Around the World who apparently purchased the film's assets from its bankrupt sales agent and licensed the film to Brentwood/BCI who released it first on a four-film, two-disc set titled PSYCHOTIC TENDENCIES and then as part of their three-disc, five-film CRYPT OF NIGHTMARES set – which also included Jose Ramon Larraz's STIGMA and BLACK CANDLES (along with a nonsensical alternate edit titled NAKED DREAMS) along with the Spanish/Italian horror giallo THE EVIL EYE – which was pulled before release although a few copies reached retailers. 88 Films'1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed widescreen transfer is derived from a 2K scan of the 16mm camera negative which does what it can with the 16mm cinematography which looks reasonably clean apart from some occasional dirt and a few light leaks along the left edge of the screen. Detail is good in close-ups and fair in long shots, and the lack of coverage for many scenes means that a lot of scenes play out in long shot unless Rebane zooms in. The LPCM 2.0 mono track delivers clear if unevenly mixed dialogue, flat music, and a sparse sound effects track while optional English SDH subtitles are also included. As with other editions of BLOOD HARVEST, 88 Films' disc has also been withdrawn from the market – although 88 Films is selling remaining stock from their eBay page – since Rebane apparently plans on releasing his own edition through VCI.