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

Elizabeth, a new bride, is brought home on her wedding day by her husband Dr Henry Kellenberg. Henry’s house is palatial and only two other people live there; the housekeeper Claire, and Henry’s adult son Oliver (who is blind). Henry shows Elizabeth around the house, telling her that she can enter any room except one, which is located in the basement.

After Henry leaves for work each day, Elizabeth is left to her own devices. Initially, her new clothing and jewellery, and the various luxuries provided by her new home are sufficient to entertain her. But eventually her curiosity gets the better of her and she explores the forbidden room, where she discovers clones of herself. She runs out of the room in a panic, leaving the door open. When Henry returns, he quickly discovers her deceit and brutually murders Elizabeth. Claire and Oliver help him to dispose of her corpse in a shallow grave in the grounds.

Six weeks later, another “Elizabeth” is traveling home with Henry after their wedding, exactly as before. The new Elizabeth goes through the same experiences, also discovering the room with the clones, except she manages to kill Henry before he can kill her. When Oliver and Claire find out what has happened and that Henry is dead, Claire has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital.

Oliver imprisons Elizabeth and asks her to read Claire's journal to him; he tells her that he will not release her until she does. The journal reveals that the real Elizabeth was Henry's wife, but she died of a rare medical condition. Unable to bear her loss, Henry decided to create clones of Elizabeth, and hired Claire (a biologist) to help him to perfect the clones. The initial attempts were abortive, but eventually they succeeded. From the journal, it is learned that Henry and Claire have awoken five clones in total, including the current “Elizabeth”. The journal also reveals Claire’s suspicions that Oliver is actually a clone of Henry.

When Elizabeth tells Oliver this, he states that Henry blinded him out of jealousy, not liking the way Oliver looked at some of the earlier clones. Elizabeth attacks Oliver and tries to escape, but suddenly a new “Elizabeth” clone appears, holding a shotgun. Confused and disoriented, the new clone shoots and kills Oliver. Elizabeth is also fatally wounded by the new clone, but before she dies she tells the clone to read Claire’s journal.

The new Elizabeth reads the journal which tells how Henry and Claire initially met, and details their work together on the cloning experiments. They had a brief intimate relationship at this time, but later Claire discovered that Henry simply wished to relive his wedding night with each new cloned Elizabeth, prior to murdering them. This horrified Claire.

Recovered from her heart attack, Claire returns to the house from the hospital. The latest Elizabeth clone gives her the journal, and tells Claire to put her research to better use. Then the new Elizabeth leaves to start life 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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