“Revenge is a best dish served cold” is an overused expression, but it is also a great approach to storytelling. The short-lived anthology show Night Visions has a wonderful example of this; Bitter Harvest sees its young protagonist ponder his fate after being instrumental in a neighbor’s life-altering accident. You, the audience, anticipate something terrible to eventually befall the guilty party, however, nothing can prepare you for what’s to come. This tale of retribution goes to a very dark place and still has me shocked all these years later.
A chill is in the air of Bitter Harvest before a single event changes the course of several lives. It’s as if a dark cloud perpetually hangs over everyone and everything in Philip Sgriccia‘s colorless episode. In this farm community, everything seems plausibly normal. Even the one neighbor who all the kids dislike is nothing out of the ordinary. Old Man Jennings (played by the late Jack Palance) is said to be a murderer, according to series host Henry Rollins in the preface. The son of a witch as well. Yet idle gossip isn’t about to keep teenage Shane (Brendan Fletcher) from fishing on Jennings’ property. After getting caught in the act, though, Shane dashes for safety, even as he spies Jennings falling arms first into a piece of farm machinery. Luck was not on his side, either; Jennings flipped the switch with his foot while in pursuit of Shane.
The old farmer naturally loses both arms in the accident. The sequence of said injury is rather graphic; blood steadily drips from the machinery as Palance’s character screams in utter agony. Worst of all: maybe the damage wouldn’t have been as severe if Shane had simply come to Jennings’ aid as opposed to stopping, then taking off again. Even Shane’s father coming to the rescue, upon hearing his neighbor’s desperate screams, can’t seem to spare him in Jennings’ ultimate plan of vengeance. In fact, no one connected to Shane is spared in the end.
You know Shane is cooked when Jennings doesn’t tell the boy’s parents the entire truth; he returns to his farm in need of assistance, and Shane’s father is more than happy to volunteer his son after learning he was fishing on Jennings’ property without permission. From there, the main character endures a suspenseful waiting game where he, along with uninitiated viewers, are trying to figure out what exactly Jennings is up to here. By not divulging all the facts, the neighbor holds power over the boy. He could have just made Shane sweat for the rest of his life, out of fearing what might happen if the truth ever came out. No, as it turns out, that would have been too kind. And after the outcome, we all realize the stories about Old Man Jennings are indeed true.
Night Visions was a fairly solid anthology with more good tales than not. However, Bitter Harvest ranks as the best, hands down. Years later, it remains a masterful delivery of folk horror and slow revenge.
Watch Bitter Harvest:
So the Story Goes spotlights notable anthology tales from both television and film, with an emphasis on the horror genre.
Tales from the Paulside 
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