Adventures in Fake Journalism: Path of Evil

Like Harvest of Fear, its direct predecessor, Path of Evil features some fairly bizarre examples of fake newspaper headlines. Most of them use the bizarre Latin filler text that appears in HoF's stories, along with a variety of little errors-

'An 5-year old'? Other than minor nitpicky things, though, the papers are generally competent enough at filling in backstory during their flashes onscreen - although it's not always vital information. A new viewer needs to know, for example, that Jake was stabbed-

Carpenter was jailed for the Harvest killings-

And that Billy is credited as the hero who helped save the day-

Before Jake was arrested for beating him up!

Those are all perfectly helpful articles, which makes me wonder why all the other ones that just restated the opening sequence-

Were featured. We know full well that his parents were killed, filmmakers. You showed it happening.

Two of this movie's fake articles are worth singling out for a little more attention, however - one because the text of it is so bad that it has to have been a Simpsons-style joke meant for anyone willing to freeze-frame it-

Amazing, huh? Then, right at the end, there's an article which, unlike everything else in the montage of fake news, actually features a fake story, as opposed to filler text.

So here's the story, since it's not really legible in that size-

Retired Sheriff William Newton proves he still has the law in his blood.

Devil's Lake M.E. Carpenter arraigned on 24 counts of murder.

(left column)

If you asked former Devil's Lake Sheriff William Newton what he though his plans were for this spring, it certainly wasn't going to be chasing former colleague medical examiner James Carpenter through the streets of Devil's Lake and then eventually firing the shot that ended 24 unsolved murders in a span of over 20 (cut off)

That's a pretty heroic run-on sentence, huh? Notice the other error, beyond general lack of attention to how a newspaper should read? That's right - the previous movie was set during a 'Harvest Festival', while all the leaves were turning. So all that chasing Newton was doing probably wasn't happening during the spring...

Okay, so now onto the-

(right column)

Devil's Lake Medical Examiner James Peter Carpenter was shot by Newton in the chest and miraculously survived and is now in critical but stable condition at (illegible) County Medical Center in (illegible)

“Bring in the next 100 people shot in the chest with that size slug tearing through them and they'd all be dead,”. Said E.R. attending Dr. Michael D. Jones. “It's amazing. I guess the man up stairs had a (illegible)”.

I find this article more fascinating than most, largely because it demonstrates something key about the development of the film. Even though large departures were made from the plot of the previous movie, the filmmakers went out of their way to ensure that the events of this film jibed with the ending of Harvest of Fear.

So if, in their minds, it had to be made absolutely clear that this film was a follow-up to HoF, then aren't I forced to once again ask what happened to the bloody knife and the missing siblings?

Damn you, Path of Evil, pulling me right back in again!