The Harbinger

Covid wasn't a horror for the majority and this film tries to make lockdown seem like one. The actors do their best with what has become a boring subject and the two points are for their performances alone. But as an entertaining horror, it fails abysmally with all the cliches of a horror that relies solely upon atmosphere with a boring subject. There aren't many actors due to when it was made and rules. 2020-2022 will go down as filmmakers worst efforts for making films and this film is testament to that fact. I honestly cannot think of any film made during the covid period that is excellent. It's as if they continued making drivel throughout that period thinking lockdown would never end and the public would be grateful for anything. Yawn fest.

I was hoping for a good horror, instead I was presented with a rehash of the COVID pandemic. The movie cinematically looked good, the acting was decent (at least between the two main characters). The storyline was awful. The focus on COVID overshadowed the horror elements of the movie and after living through the pandemic for several years felt like a subject that we are all tired of hearing about. The story failed to explain the origins of the harbinger and didn't do a good job explaining its motivation or the purpose of the dreams. The demonologist felt like a last minute add in to provide some background, but it was poorly executed and a bit "goofy". Bottom line, don't waste your money on this movie, unless you want to watch folks talking about COVID, masking, quarantines and social distancing.

On one level, this quite excellent film might be compared to "A Nightmare on Elm Street." City denizen "Mavis" contacts her old friend "Monique," who lives in a semi-rural enclave upstate. Mavis requests that Mo travel to her apartment for undisclosed, but serious, reasons.

When Mo arrives at the apartment, she learns that Mavis has been plagued by bad dreams that are increasingly violent and threaten to literally erase her, as if she had never existed. Key to these dreams, we learn, is a dark figure that controls the direction of the dream-narrative, as it were. Mo tries to help. But in so doing, she falls prey to the very dream "disease" that Mavis fell prey to. Much of the movie's balance, then, is concerned with Mo's dream world and her ideations.

On the other hand, the deep structure of the film is actually close to something like "It's a Wonderful Life" (or, heck, "Wild Strawberries"). The questions at the heart of it all: What if I depart now? What if I had never been? Erasure. We learn that these questions were already pertinent to Monique's life prior to her own "infection" by these disturbing dreams. But these questions also inform the general direction of a film that uses the isolation, impersonality and fear of the COVID 19 crisis as its backdrop and sensibility. In short, The Harbinger has ambitions beyond "the creepy."

To the extent the film meets these ambitions, Gabby Beans (Monique) deserves a lot of credit for carrying the central role from stern to bow. She is excellent. (Frankly, each of the actors was, at worst, very good.)

Mitton's writing also deserves a lot of credit. There are a few slow moments in the middle of the film. But in general, the Harbinger features tight, economical dialogue between the actors. And while the script owes more than one debt to its predecessors, it also avoids most of the expected horror movie cliches for a film in this genre (dream horror?), while playing on some familiar tropes (key among them, the "is the character imagining this, or is she really experiencing it" plot device).

Anyway, definitely recommended. Oh, and the closing scene was very well done in my opinion. A fine closer right up there with "Kingdom of the Spiders" or "Hereditary."

Monique breaks her family's strict Covid rules to visit her struggling friend Mavis. Mavis explains that she's been having vivid and terrifying nightmares, an empathetic Monique tries to help her friend, and it soon becomes a shared experience.

Better than I had expected, it's a well produced film with a pretty good storyline. Maybe Covid was generally a little less nightmarish in general, but it still served as an effective backdrop. Good use of surreal visuals and traditional, historical horror, The Plague Doctor in particular looks great.

It was well paced, I liked the characters, the family setup worked well, I also liked the way the scares were delivered, a few jump scares, but they weren't overdone. Well written, I liked how all of the loose ends tied together.

I thought the acting was very good, I thought Gabby Beans in particular was very good as Monique, her acting helped to elevate the film.

Enjoyable.

7/10.

Desperate to leave her quarantined life, a woman jumps at the chance to visit a friend away from the safety of her family to help her deal with a series of troubling nightmares, but the longer they stay together the more she realizes her friend is haunted by an entity now targeting her.

This was a rather fun if somewhat problematic genre effort. One of the better elements here is the influx of topical material making for a strong commentary on the current climate. Focusing heavily on the various interactions some have way too many touches to real-life scenarios involving facial protection, social distancing, fear of germs permeating from the outside, and the general sense of loneliness that comes from being away from family and loved ones for extended periods, this part of the film is incredibly touching and rather enjoyable. It's quite intriguing to have this kind of setup that plays quite heavily on these topics while also building up this relationship between the two in this kind of environment which is a great touch with the overall setup present providing a great groundwork for the genre thrills to come later on. That becomes the other enjoyable facet of the film as the series of dreams and nightmares here becomes quite genuinely chilling. Employing a kind of nightmare logic to its scenes as the hypnotic nature of what's happening in concept plays out equally as adeptly as the visuals being created, the eeriness created here is enough to realistically drive the right person over the edge as it does here. Including a huge demonic figure in the shape of a deformed bird-like creature perfectly suited to this kind of environment helps to provide the last half with a solid mystery involving its origins and intentions of it. Sending them off on a quest to discover the truth behind what's happening to them and getting more than they bargained for, is all highly enjoyable and effective to provide quite a lot to like about it. There are some minor issues present but they're not big issues. The main issue here is that the films' topicality might not be the most immersive, which will get too many people involved. Rather than be something light and easy for people to get invested in, this one goes for a heavy-handed approach regarding how the pandemic is affecting people and the various subjects around the concepts at play here which leave this one to be at ease with something that others might not want to be reminded of. There's not a lot to like about the finale at play which is quite familiar and highly unoriginal since it's obvious to see where it's going from the very start. That it never really deviates from this setup and just plunges into that feels quite underwhelming being so predictable, which is what brings this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.