Certificate: 15 (strong horror, language). Running Time: 87 mins. UK Distributor: Signature Entertainment
WHO’S IN IT?
Gabby Beans, Emily Davis, Raymond Anthony Thomas, Myles Walker, Cody Braverman, Jay Dunn, Stephanie Roth Haberle, Laura Heisler
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Andy Mitton (director, writer, producer, composer, editor), Ludovica Isidori (cinematographer)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Two old friends (Beans and Davis) encounter a nightmarish demon that distorts their reality…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE HARBINGER?
Even after everything we’ve collectively gone through over the last few years, COVID-19 is never going away – not just from our everyday lives, but apparently from the movies as well. The virus has been incorporated into films both micro or major since 2020, birthing a new sub-genre I like to call “COVID-sploitation” where basic fears and societal adaptations surrounding the illness, especially in a pre-vaccine world, form a core component of a film’s plot and themes. On the lower end, you’ll find cheaply made horrors like Corona Zombies and The Bubble (which isn’t a horror, but is pretty horrific in other ways), while the higher end features films like Host and even Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, all of which some way incorporate the COVID-19 pandemic into their narratives with mixed results.
The Harbinger, the second solo feature from filmmaker Andy Mitton, is an interesting addition to the COVID-sploitation category. While it’s of a considerably higher quality than many other mediocre-to-bad examples, the film arguably exploits the psychological uncertainty many of us felt during lockdowns for scares more than even the most tasteless of horror entries. However, there is an underlying purpose to how the film presents its scares under a real-world context, which although not completely airtight does manage to leave a chilling enough impression to justify its exploitative tendencies.
Taking place in New York during the peak of the pandemic, Mavis (Emily Davis) – who lives alone in a city apartment building – has been experiencing a series of disturbing nightmares involving a mysterious imposing figure dressed in a cloak and wearing a beaked Plague Doctor mask. With nobody else to reach out to, she gives her old friend Monique, or “Mo” (Gabby Beans), a call. Mo, contrarily, has developed a healthy bubble with her brother Ronald (Raymond Anthony Thomas) and their vulnerable father Lyle (Myles Walker), so when she decides to go over to Mavis’ apartment and help her out, she’s met with stern disapproval. Nonetheless, a masked-up Mo makes the trip over and shares a comfortable reunion with Mavis, but when she begins seeing the same masked figure in her own dreams, and even starts to feel her own reality become distorted, the friends attempt to figure out who it is, what it wants, and how it can apparently erase a person’s mental state and, eventually, their entire existence at will.
Almost immediately, The Harbinger hits you over the head with familiar pandemic-era traits, from references to the six-feet/two-metre social distancing rule, to people wearing masks wherever they go, to even a “Karen”-like figure who angrily refuses to do either of those things. Since it is all still so fresh in our minds, it isn’t easy being reminded that this was the norm only a few years ago, but what is made clear through Mitton’s writing and direction is that this was also a time of great isolation, and for those who may already have been psychologically vulnerable to have their mental capacity decline much more rapidly as a result of being forced to stay inside. Mitton is quick to equate the supernatural tormentor that terrorises the dreams and realities of both our main characters with the much more real threat of catching, and possibly even dying from, the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has virtually everyone in a somewhat paranoid state, but unlike in other examples of COVID-sploitation cinema which easily prey upon everyday fears about COVID-19 itself, The Harbinger goes for a much more subtle fear from that period: that no matter how much we try and avoid it, it’s only a matter of time before it catches us. That’s an unnerving thought in and of itself, and the film does pretty well to stick with that philosophy without compromising it in favour of a happier outcome.
It is, admittedly, difficult to see this movie working nearly as well if the pandemic aspect was completely removed from the story, to which I’m certain it was always supposed to be eternally linked. However, there are some strong qualities that do transcend its limited appeal, one of which being the performances of Gabby Beans and Emily Davis, who are both very good here. While their relationship and past with each other is left somewhat vague (all we know is that at one point, Davis’ Mavis took Beans’ Mo for some much-needed treatment, a backstory that the movie never returns to), you do buy that these are two people who were once pretty close, at least enough to where one would be willing to break lockdown rules just to visit the other, because the actors share a natural chemistry that does make you root for their friendship, which is constantly under threat by this creepy entity who dominates the screen whenever it’s shown under intense lighting or in some eerie faraway shots.
Mitton also proves himself to be a competent slow-burn horror filmmaker, gently adding more and more suspense to the story as it goes from one scene to the next. Although it isn’t a particularly scary film, often relying on a few familiar conventions such as the creepy horror movie child who seems to only be there because it’s a creepy horror movie child, The Harbinger does create an unsettling atmosphere where you’re always expecting something horrific to happen at any moment, and even when it doesn’t you’re still left unsettled by how effectively the filmmaker is pacing and framing his dark and almost gothic supernatural world. Sometimes, though, it does feel like Mitton is grasping at straws, particularly as it moves into a somewhat uneventful climax that leaves more than a few questions unanswered, which I can see dividing a number of viewers.
While it doesn’t quite reach its potential, The Harbinger is a chilling piece of COVID-sploitation cinema that does partly manage to set itself apart from many others in that field, and leaves you fearful of a psychologically testing period of time that hopefully none of us will ever see again in our lifetimes.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Harbinger is a strong enough example of how to do COVID-sploitation cinema effectively, with filmmaker Andy Mitton finding interesting new ways to prey on psychological fears during the pandemic, while also delivering a creepy (if not entirely scary) atmosphere that’s made more believable by the strong acting.
