Harbinger Down
The film follows a group of grad students aboard the titular fishing trawler Harbinger, who are studying the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship';s crew discover a block of ice that is infected with alien bacteria, they are attacked by shapeshifting alien monsters. 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.
10 November 1985, San Diego, California, USA
3 February 1970
27 January 1981, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
5 May 1940, New York City, New York, USA
August 05, 2015
Gillis clearly had some ideas for practical effects he wanted to create; the plot is just an excuse to do them. There doesn't appear to be much sincere interest in telling a story. For this reason, Harbinger Down plays like the world's longest demo reel.August 13, 2015
A really solid and above average debut from Alec Gillis.August 07, 2015
Harbinger Down brings the monstrous goods as expect, yet struggles to tell a coherent story that's worth the practical effects success.April 07, 2017
I really wanted to like Harbinger Down, but felt burned out by the end credits. It's a bleak, tiring and vanilla creature feature that's sadly forgettable. I don't recommend going down with the ship.August 07, 2015
Bad acting and atrocious dialogue is topped only by the cheap shoddiness of the practical FX this demo-reel flick is meant to show off. Better they'd remained unseen.August 13, 2015
Simplistic and obvious, but it also does a fine job of emulating the late-'80s monster movies we all know and love.August 07, 2015
Ranks somewhere between self-consciously cheesy SyFy Channel fare and better-than-average direct-to-video product.