It is possible to use the isolation and helplessness that people felt during COVID lockdown’s prime days to your advantage in today’s world. “The Harbinger.” Andy Mitton’s second solo feature (following two co-directed with Jesse Holland) is a spooky tale in which vulnerable individuals find themselves prey to a malevolent spirit that worms into their dreams, dislodging them from grounding reality.
More eerie than terrifying, with strong performances and atmosphere pushing past some fuzzy plot aspects, this Fantasia premiere should please more discerning genre fans in XYZ Films’ release to limited theaters and VOD on Sept. 1. It is not to be confused, however, with another U.S. supernatural drama starring Irene Bedard. This film debuted at Dances With Films June and opens Sept. 2.)
Recurrent, disturbing cries coming from Mavis’ NYC apartment have attracted complaints from nearby neighbors, especially a neighbor next-door. “Karen” and belligerent anti-masker (Stephanie Roth Haberle). When her more-sympathetic building superintendent (Cody Braverman) lets himself in to investigate, he finds the tenant in a state of whimpering hysteria and self-harm — yet asleep. After successfully awakening her, he encourages Mavis to seek medical attention.
Blood relatives apparently not being an option, she rings up old friend Monique (Gabby Beans), who’s surprised though happy to hear from her. There is a prior debt of gratitude that makes Mo reluctantly drive to the city in response, despite disapproval from the brother (Myles Walker) and father (Myles Walker) with whom she’s been carefully maintaining a virus-free lockdown “bubble”They live in an upstate home.
After arriving in the city, which is now ghostly quiet due to contagion epicenters, she finds Mavis somewhat disorganized but seems normal enough. She is cheered by this reunion. She eventually gives in to her coercion and admits to it. “bad dreams”She said that alarm clocks and inflicting pain can’t disrupt a phenomenon that only gets worse. It appears to be an easy case of cumulative strain. Yet when Mo offers to sleep beside her that first night, providing the reassurance of another person’s physical presence … she immediately has a vividly realistic nightmare of her own.
This is enough to make her schedule a video chat (with Laura Heisler), with a purported demonologist. She does not appear to be a nutcase nor a charlatan. She immediately recognizes the entity described (which Mo glimpsed in the film’s creepiest visual) as a cruel trickster who plays with a victim’s mind until they’re “hollowed out,”They are so rare that even their existence seems to be in jeopardy Other people’s memories as well. (Mavis can recall a photo of a prior boyfriend, but she is unsure if he was her domestic partner. The prognosis is not good for those already affected.
Both women are now in the same situation. “The Harbinger”The maze of dreams that appear real can become a confusing maze, in which reality appears to be deceitfully possible. This makes it difficult to understand the true nature of reality. This concept might be familiar to you. “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” but the execution is closer to something like Mike Flanagan’s “Oculus,”Fantasy FX and gore are less important than a slippery, dislocating narrative logic.
Mitton’s script could be more intricate and punchy in that regard — even if “forgetting” is a significant plot element, there’s no reason the lead characters’ backstories couldn’t be clarified further, or that some transitions should seem just as confusing to us as to them. Also, whole lives can be described as “erased”This is a bit of an abstraction. Anthony Hopkins’ gradual loss of self to senility in “The Father”A real-world equivalent was more terrifying than this demonic force. (The director’s first feature with Holland, 2010’s “Yellowbrickroad,” likewise relied on a menace of vanishings that just weren’t very scary.)
Nonetheless, “The Harbinger” disappoints only in that it’s good enough to make you wish it were better — that it left an indelible impression rather than a slightly vague one. It does a lot in a small space, and never feels claustrophobic by its very ordinary, even drab interiors. They’re occasionally broken up by snowy exteriors that are no more welcoming in Ludovica Isidori’s adept cinematography. (It’s better to deceive that the dreaded nightmares are only limited to these humble settings.
This film is unlike other films that incorporate COVID-enforced situations. It transcends obvious gimmickry to make a pandemic a key element of the plot. The central ghoul was said to have thrived under such conditions dating back at least to the time of the medieval plagues. Though their characters aren’t always fully realized in the writing, the actors make it all plausible by emphasizing an understated, everyday quality to figures that might easily have been played in more histrionic keys.