Reviews: Harbinger Down (2015) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Sci-Fi, Monsters
Subgenres: Creatures, Survival, Mutants, Sci-Fi
Where does Harbinger Down (2015) stand among horror films? Our review examines the scares, pacing, and what makes it unique in the genre.
Harbinger Down (2015) is an independent American science-fiction monster horror movie that was an interesting watch, but I will not watch it again. Director and writer Alec Gillis did not do a great job executing his first full-length movie. Alec is known for his special effects work in AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004), Aliens (1986), Cast Away (2000), and Jumanji (1995). He got funding for this movie through Kickstarter. The creature effects in this film were created by ADI and not from the use of computer generated imagery (CGI). Animatronics, prosthetic makeup, miniature effects, and stop-motion were used and was done on an okay level but not good. The monster scenes are not lit well, and the monsters are not noticeable, appealing and detailed. There is lit monster scenes but it does not last long, and the quality is disturbingly weak.
Harbinger Down is about a group of graduate students venturing out once again. They are on board the titular fishing trawler Harbinger. They are on the ship because they want to study the effects of global warming in the Bering Sea on a pod of Orcas. The ship’s crew did not take long to discover an alien bacteria infecting a block of ice. The students accidentally find a distress beacon coming from a submerged block of ice. They have found the Soviet wreckage along with the frozen Soviet astronaut corpses and yes, they examine it. You have probably guessed it; it did not take long for them to get attacked by alien shapeshifting monsters. Watch the movie, see what happens if you have not seen The Thing (1982) as yet.
My View: the plot of the film is a bite off of The Thing movie, and there is no going around that. The actors all did a good job with what they were given, but it was not enough to save the movie from being an average watch. I would not recommend this movie to horror fans because it was a cliche and nothing new to the eyes except for dreary, dreadful special effects.
Similar films like Harbinger Down can be found in monster movies sub-genre(s), check them out for more movies like Harbinger Down.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Harbinger Down Rating Scores
- Our Score: 4/10
- Overall Score: 4.29/10
- IMDB: 4.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 4.3/10
Look here for more movies starting with H and here you can find 2015 movies to watch on your favorite streaming service.
Browse: Monster Movies List