"The Harbinger" an effectively dread-inducing COVID horror tale

The Harbinger (2022)

A lot of movies have met challenges with COVID-19 restrictions, and a lot of movies have actually centered around the pandemic itself or at least used it as a backdrop. Written, directed, edited, and composed by Andy Mitton (2018’s shudder-inducing “The Witch in the Window”), “The Harbinger” is a horror film set in the thick of the 2020 lockdown. Reliving that time of isolation and uncertainty in our lives is relatable and threatening enough, especially for those who went through it alone. Add the fear of being forgotten by loved ones as if you never existed to the fear of dying and “The Harbinger” has both the real-world and otherworldly horrors covered. 

The film begins with Mavis (Emily Davis), a photographer quarantining all alone in her Queens apartment. When Mavis sleeps, she can’t wake up, feeling trapped in her nightmares. Having no one else to turn to, Mavis calls her old college roommate, Monique/Mo (Gabby Beans), who’s quarantining with her brother (Raymond Anthony Thomas) and their susceptible father (Myles Walker) in their country home. Hearing the urgency in Mavis’ voice, Mo knows she has to help her friend, but she also realizes she’s putting her cautious family at risk when she returns. As soon as a masked-up Mo gets to Mavis’ building, she notices a little boy coughing and being carried in by his mother. Mo is understandably cautious, but beyond the virus lies an even more harmful entity that’s been in charge of Mavis’ strange sleeping patterns.

“This pandemic is just like the cherry on the shit sundae,” the nightmare-plagued Mavis admits without losing her awareness that everyone is living a real-world nightmare. Without coming across as tasteless or exploitative in terms of using a real-life pandemic, “The Harbinger” surely works its way under the skin. Andy Mitton’s script does take the approach of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” blurring between reality and nightmare where the viewer feels as lucid as the characters in where they stand, which is to say not at all. Instead of a crispy-faced child murderer in a Christmas sweater, there’s the plague-doctor masked “harbinger,” and he does make for an elusive threat more dreadful than the Sandman. 

What works best about “The Harbinger” are the characters, aided by convincing and compelling performances. To get Mo to Mavis, we have to believe that she would take that risk. As we come to discover, Mavis once helped Mo in her time of crisis, so it makes sense that Mo feels she must do the same. Emily Davis and Gabby Beans lay all of the groundwork in their reunion and their mutual trust (they both remove their masks after some precautionary quizzing and Mo realizes Mavis hasn’t even left her apartment to get groceries). The contagious nightmares that extend even to Mo are never as ghoulishly surreal as, say, those in Freddy Kruger’s playground, but director Mitton makes an impact and does what he can under the constraints of a modest budget. There is some creepy imagery here, for sure, but the existential dread and mere idea of being forgotten are what makes “The Harbinger” an unshakable creeper.

Grade: B -

XYZ Films released “The Harbinger” (86 min.) in select theaters and on VOD on December 1, 2022.