Harbinger Down (2015)

While studying the effects of global warming on a pod of whales, grad students on a crabbing vessel and it's crew uncovers a froze soviet space shuttle, and unintentionally releases a monstrous organism from it

Director:

Alec Gillis

Writer:

Alec Gillis

Stars:

Lance Henriksen, Camille Balsamo, Matt Winston

Cast

Cast overview:
Lance Henriksen	...	Graff
Camille Balsamo	...	Sadie
Matt Winston	...	Stephen
Reid Collums	...	Bowman
Winston James Francis	...	Guillaume
Milla Bjorn	...	Svet
Giovonnie Samuels	...	Ronelle
Michel Estime	...	Dock (as Michael Estime)
Edwin H. Bravo	...	Atka
Kraig W. Sturtz	...	Roland
Jason Speer	...	Sergei
Mick Ignis	...	Creature Suit Performer

Storyline

A group of grad students have booked passage on the crabbing boat Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Belugas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage, things get downright deadly. It seems that the Russians experimented with tardigrades, tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, but not without mutation. Now the crew is exposed to aggressively mutating organisms. And after being locked in ice for 3 decades, the creatures aren't about to give up the warmth of human companionship.

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Plot Keywords:

retro | retro horror | outer space | creature | crew | 

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Taglines:

Terror is just beneath the surface.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and creature violence.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 August 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Harbinger Down - Das Grauen lauert im Eis

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dark Dunes Productions,Studio ADI

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the 1982 film John Carpenter's The Thing, Childs inquires about "voodoo sh*t" once it's made clear that a monster is among them.

In this film, Dock also inquires about "voodoo sh*t" shortly after the monster reveals itself to the crew.

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Goofs

When the crew of The Harbinger raise the 'object' shortly into the film, they claim it is encased in 'old ice' (due to the visible blue colour). Indeed, due to compression over many hundreds/thousands of years by 'newer ice' forming on top, this would be the case. However, according to the opening sequence; the object/craft in question crashed in 1982, and would unlikely have been there long enough for the necessary ice build-up and compression needed to give it the blue colour.

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Quotes

Graff: You're gonna need a bigger bucket.

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Connections

References Jaws (1975)

User Reviews

A very decent homage to The Thing

In the sunken nightmare ship of Harbinger, Russian water-bears sleep waiting. Before I go and tell you about the movie experience, you should know that this film is a Kickstarter movie, with more than 350 thousand dollars coming from that campaign, and made by people with vast experience with practical effects. You see, Hollywood uses CGI nowadays because it is cheaper and it has become a hallmark of fancy directors to use practical effects, all other movies relying on the cheapest alternative around. Cherish it, like you did fat and ugly radio stars before MTV came around.

The plot is pretty much a rip-off of The Thing. That is not accidental, because it is the same team that worked on the recent remake before the studios decided to go with CGI instead. The characters are archetypal, like in most films of the genre, with pretty decent acting all around. Lance Henriksen is great, of course, but even the rest of the actors give professional performances. What I liked also is that the characters themselves were borderline interesting making the entire feel more engaging when adding a little depth to them.

The special effects were just great for the budget they had and in conclusion I would go as far as say they accomplished their mission of creating a movie fans would enjoy and a nice homage to the great horror movies of the late 70s and early 80s.

Was the science accurate? Hell no. Was there a larger than life moral that one can leave the theater with and become a better person? Unless you count "do not join academia if you don't have the stomach for pompous self-absorbed a-wipes", then no. Was it fun? Oh, yeah!