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Directed and written Stuart Ortiz (Grave Encounters 1 and 2, Extraterrestrial), Strange Harvest: Secret Assassination in the Inland Empire Uses the true crime documentary format to reveal the gruesome horrors.

Completely framed as a gruesome true crime documentary, strange harvest Tracks two detectives' pursuit of a gruesome serial killer across San Bernardino County.

Peter Zizo And Terry Apple Starring Detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor, the mysterious and elusive “Mr. Shiny,” a shereal The killer who spans the events of the early '90s leaves little in the way of clues despite the gruesome, gruesome nature of his crimes.

Stuart Ortiz, one half of the filmmaking duo known as The Vicious Brothers, is no stranger to obscure truth and fiction. Bloody Disgusting spoke with Ortiz and lead stars Peter Zizo and Terry Apple Fantastic FestWhere the film had its world premiere (Our review)

Despite its extensive, dense mythology, strange harvest Derived from the idea of ​​approaching a horror film as a true crime documentary. “Once I grasped the idea, it just seemed like the most obvious thing to cover first and foremost would be a serial killer.Ortiz said strange crop Evolution “It seemed like I just went there, basically. Then, as far as mythology, I was just figuring out, 'Who is this guy? What is his motivation? What is all that?' You can take it a lot of different routes. I decided to take the path that gets a little more otherworldly, a little more cosmic in the end.”

Ortiz continued, “I was basically interested in putting these things together in a blender and making a weird Frankenstein creation.”

One of its main components strange crop Functionality is the natural performance of Jizo and Apple. It became a true collaboration between the actor and Ortiz. “I was already a huge true crime fan, huge horror fan,” explains Zizzo. I went back and looked more specifically at specific true crimes that feature detectives who have seen a lot, right? This guy, Joe Kenda, I tried to adopt a little [Kenda’s mannerisms] For this guy [Ortiz] Wanted very fine things. In the audition itself, before we met, it was, 'Show us those micro-expressions.' I think that would be a specific line from the audition guidelines. I thought, 'Okay, yeah, I totally get it.' Then, my therapist knew a retired New York City homicide detective. So I called the man. The way he used to talk was, 'These, themes, and those'. But I'm from New York, so we bonded, and there was a kind of stoicism. There was sympathy, but he was always calm, just like that.”

“So he's telling you this horrible thing that he's experienced and insider,” Zizzo continued. “I was like, 'Wow, there's a lot for me to use.' Because we all internalize terrible things in our lives, if I accept it and don't express it, but only express it informationally; how Does that appear in my face and my cadences? You don't want to furnish this flat because it's boring. So how do I do it? How do I do the music here so it doesn't play? And I also think he was really smart, especially in the way he cast because Teri and I have different outward personalities, and in different ways, our actual personalities played a role in how we delivered his amazing writing.”

strange harvest Fulfilled a dream of acting for Apple. She tells Bloody Disgusting, “Well, I think first of all, I've always wanted to play a detective. It's a great role. So it's a perfect fit for me in line with the kind of work I want to do. In love with the writing, in love with the character. . I mean, look, there are things that you align with as a character, and there are things that are so foreign that you're not as a person. But the biggest thing about acting is to find and act as a person . I played Lexi Taylor, a detective. I mean, I haven't seen a lot of thrillers and whatever. I like her characterization, I guess His behaviors weren't necessarily mine, but I just got into his mind and just played it and played with him. I knew what our goal was.”

Ortiz doesn't hold back when it comes to true crime or horror, as the film evokes Poughkeepsie Tapes with strange harvest.

“I really wanted to push it as far as possible,” the filmmaker says of the gruesome horror. “I felt that the format, something about the true crime format, whether it's listening to a podcast or watching a documentary, there's something about it that's this security blanket. It's like this hand that can hold your hand and get you through it. These true crime documentaries are usually about giving context and commentary to an event that happened in the past. This horrible thing happened, but it happened a while ago, so it's no longer a threat. So, this is such a safe way that you can experience these horror stories, these real-life events that happened. So, in that sense, I think that's why you hear about people you wouldn't expect to be super in true crime.”

“For a freak like me, it's no surprise,” added Ortiz. “But it's like suburban football moms like to hear stories about Ted Bundy and she's obsessed with it, right? I think it's because true crime, the setting, gives you this, I don't know, to be able to experience these things. safe place Because of that, I think you can exaggerate it more than you have to because I think a lot of these things in this film, if it was presented in a more conventional way, just a more conventional narrative style, maybe it would be too much. . As for showing carnage, few things can push it to the point. Because I believe there is a point where you cross some lines; I don't believe there's a line you can cross but I don't want it to be in bad taste.”

The format, a painstaking recreation of a true crime documentary, informed everything else. So much so that Ortiz never wavered from it, not wanting to break the spell for the audience.

“It was important to me that I didn't want to do it as satire, as farce, as anything like that,” Ortiz tells Bloody Disgusting. “I try to play it completely straight. To be honest, I'm personally interested in unusual horror-type scenarios from the point of view of complete, total reality. It's interesting to me: What would people actually do in this situation? How would they actually experience it? I don't think many horror movies really go there. They're too stylized or something, and I'm really interested in trying to get that gritty reality that's there.”

While we won't spoil what happens, Zizzo points out that audiences should stay through the credits for one key reason. “It's another 10 seconds of Joe Kirby in a different situation,” the actor teases cryptically.

“Some have implications, larger stories and more” added Ortiz, pointing to a much larger universe in the mind. And Strange Harvest: Secret Assassination in the Inland Empire Only the beginning.

Stewart Ortiz behind the scenes