Festival poster for the horror mockumentary Strange Harvest: a glowing three-pointed occult symbol above the lights of the Inland Empire at night
TRUE-CRIME FOUND FOOTAGE HORROR MOCKUMENTARY

STRANGE HARVEST

A routine welfare check leads to a gruesome discovery — and the return of a killer thought gone forever.

About

A routine welfare check in the San Bernardino suburbs ends in horror. A family of three has been bound, bled, and posed beneath a strange symbol written in blood on the ceiling. Detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor recognize the mark. It’s the calling card of a killer from 15 years ago — and he’s back.

Mr. Shiny doesn’t stop. New crime scenes surface fast. One victim is found trapped in a swimming pool with live leeches. Another is ritualistically flayed and left on display in a public park.

The case stops feeling routine. The murders seem connected to something larger — something sinister. The evidence points toward cosmic phenomena and forces far beyond human understanding.

Some mysteries don’t get solved. They just get stranger the longer you look at them.

— Detective Joe Kirby

Official Trailer

Watch Now

STREAMING

RENT / OWN

Official Home Video Release

Strange Harvest (DVD)

Strange Harvest (DVD)

Official DVD release distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Manufactured on demand.

View on Amazon

*Sold and fulfilled by Amazon.

Official Merch

Take something home from the case file. Official Strange Harvest merchandise.

Loading merchandise...

Press & Mentions

Rotten TomatoesLetterboxdWikipediaIMDb
“Ignore the film’s marketing, which seems intent on positioning it as a run-of-the-mill masked maniac movie; this is a fascinating and neatly realised horror riff on the 2020s’ most popular genre.”

— The Guardian / Catherine Bray

“It’s a grisly piece of work — drawing at least minor inspiration from the New French Extremity movement, of all places — but one that manages to display its cutthroat ambitions with surprising subtlety.”

— MovieFreak / Sarah Michelle Fetters

“Ortiz pushes the subgenre forward with a heady and unsettling immersion into the realm of true crime with a distinct horror twist.”

— Bloody Disgusting / Meagan Navarro

“Strange Harvest is a brutal, well-crafted descent into depravity that walks a tightrope between realism and horror fantasy.”

— Film Threat / Tom Atkinson

“A compelling blend of true-crime documentary aesthetics and foreboding horror, director Stuart Ortiz presents a meticulously crafted low-fi affair chock full of references to adorn its own strange, supernatural lore.”

— Fish Jelly Films / YouTube

“Stuart Ortiz crafts a phenomenal, disturbing, and creepy pseudo-documentary with ‘Strange Harvest: Occult Murder In The Inland Empire’.”

— Dread Central / Mary Beth McAndrews

“A grizzly serial killer vs cop procedural and an incredibly spot-on spoof of True Crime documentaries.”

— Nightmare on Film Street / Jonathan DeHaan

“Ortiz’s bone-chilling effort is easily the found footage horror standout of 2025”

— Daily Dead / Rocco T. Thompson

“A fascinating and neatly realised horror riff on the 2020s’ most popular genre.”

— Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus

“A compelling horror show woven through mockumentary threads.”

— RogerEbert.com

“Strange Harvest offers plenty of grisly intrigue for genre fans.”

— Decider (Stream It Verdict)

“A deeply unsettling experience that mimics true-crime docs with eerie precision.”

— The Daily Beast

“An impressively realistic faux-documentary horror.”

— JoshAtTheMovies.com

“Like Lake Mungo, but original and confidently crafted.”

— Rue Morgue

“Perhaps the best pseudo-documentary since Lake Mungo.”

— Dread Central

“An eerie, convincing recreation of modern true-crime format.”

— Paste Magazine

“Gruesome, nasty effects and dreadful intrigue keep the tension high.”

— Movies and Munchies

“This mockumentary blurs fiction and reality with compelling verité style.”

— The Daily Beast

“A gripping and immersive faux-true-crime thriller.”

— From the Fourth Row

“A thoroughly engaging horror mockumentary.”

— Moviejawn

“Worth horror mavens’ time with enough variation on genre tropes.”

— Decider

“Strange Harvest nails the true-crime parody in early moments.”

— Paste Magazine

“A convincing blend of documentary style and horror tension.”

— RogerEbert.com

“An unforgettable mockumentary experience for true-crime fans.”

— JoshAtTheMovies.com

“The film’s doc style keeps you immersed, making it feel almost real.”

— From the Fourth Row

“Mockumentary structure executed in a way that feels familiar and eerie.”

— Paste Magazine

“Strange Harvest sets itself apart with immersive documentary mimicry.”

— Decider

“A compelling horror journey that blends mockumentary realism with unsettling imagery.”

— Rotten Tomatoes

Review 1 of 28

Cast & Crew