Bayview Entertainment has a pair of new-to-Blu-ray films lined up for delivery on Oct. 17 that will have genre fans eagerly awaiting the chills and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night thrills associated with films of this ilk that are timed for release during the Halloween season.
So let’s get to it! First up, from the filmmaking team of Mark Wolfe and Kerry McArthur, is The Orchard, starring Lucas Szuch as Lucas Bauer, a young man who inherits his grandfather’s orchard in the Kootenay’s area of British Columbia (filming took place in and around Creston). It is something of a blessing for Lucas, who is a recovering addict … he is clean now and this gift gives him a chance to start anew.
However, there’s something odd about the locals. It’s as if they have a secret, and since Lucas is a newcomer he’s not ready for it. Or, maybe they are just reserved and in time they will be more open.
That’s how Wolfe and McArthur have set up the early part of the story. There is a sense of uneasiness — anxiety — in how Lucas navigates his new surroundings … a mystery that deepens as events unfolds. The Orchard is subtle in the opening stanza and plays more like an arthouse horror tale, dark and foreboding. Not a blood-and-guts shocker (that will come).
Indeed, once completed the film worked the festival circuit, with stops at the Bridge Fest, the Crown International Film Festival, Mannheim Arts and Film Festival … even screening at the 2022 SIFF (Swedish International Film Festival). On Blu-ray this coming Oct. 17 for those who were not lucky enough to attend one of the festival screening.
Things are set in motion when Lucas, while tending the orchard, has an accident. This will bring his past crashing back and turn the enjoyment of his newfound life into a horror tale … the addiction is back. The “secret” will be revealed!!
Joining The Orchard on Blu-ray on Oct. 17 is writer/director Terry Jarrell’s Harlow’s Haunt.
We heard about the acquisition of this Black Dog Filmz production by Bayview Entertainment this past February and couldn’t help but wonder when it would surface on Blu-ray. We now know the answer to that … a horror tale timed for Halloween. Perfect!
Jarrell’s haunted house thriller — literally, a haunted house thriller — complete with your victim pool, worked the festival circuit for a solid year. Over 100 festival stops during that year-long period —both domestic and international — so the film has the reviews, the awards and the built-in awareness to be a genre hit when it arrives in the home entertainment marketplace later this moth.
Also going for it is the name recognition of John Dugan — The Texas Chain Saw Massacre — who plays Harlow Greer, the “founder” of the attraction alluded to in the film’s title. Dugan gets to have fun with this role — it’s a hoot and a half.
The story unfolds over two timelines. The first takes place in the mid-1920s, with Dugan/Harlow setting up the reasons for the evil that is unleashed and the horror that will unfold in the present day.
The second storyline features our collection of haunted attraction visitors (the victim pool), who are friends (with a backstory), who fall victim to a force that they unleashed years before … the payment for what they did has come due (in blood). It turns out that all those wild tales about Harlow Greer way back in the day are true, and not just fairy tales to sell tickets to eager customers out for a few harmless thrills.
Mark the date the down, Oct. 17, for the Blu-ray debut of both The Orchard and Harlow’s Haunt from Bayview Entertainment.
