The Harbinger — The Harbinger(VOD)

It’s hardly surprising that the Covid pandemic should have given rise to its own horror movie subgenre.  The sense of isolation, containment and uncertainty with the awareness of human loss in the background evokes the emotional triggers which form the basis of horror media; fear, suspense, the possibility of imminent mortality.

The way that movies have generally exploited the conditions of lockdown, most famously in the case of Rob Savage’s Host, is to pick up on the quarantine aspect of the experience, with people reduced to communicating and entertaining themselves via the internet or social platforms and the modern electronic media they have become reliant on become a conduit to dangerous supernatural forces.

The Harbinger, directed, written, edited and scored by Andy Mitton, which concerns a malicious entity preying on a community under the cover of lockdown, takes a different tack.  For a start its supernatural villain is not unleashed through technology but is a presumably ancient entity whose manifestation during the pandemic is decided by the protagonists to be largely opportunistic, the qualities of isolation and entrapment suit its purpose while its presence in its future victims’ lives stretches back to childhood, long before the arrival of Covid.

Also Mitton evokes the pandemic not merely by isolating his characters and having them stare at screens but by reference to the minutiae of the experience everyone in the world is familiar with.  Whole scenes, including exposition, take place with people wearing masks, characters’ ability to reach each other during a crisis is impacted by restrictions on travel and interaction.

The evocation of pandemic detail extends to the film’s villain.  The Harbinger itself with its dark silhouette and long beak is explicitly referred to in the dialogue as resembling the medieval plague doctors as, it is suggested, a provocation to its victims recalling as it does an iconic detail of previous pestilences.

The film is well-acted (Gabby Beans and Emily Davis are particularly good) and the characterization helps offset the potential luridness of the more conventional supernatural elements.  Mitton has a very original way of allowing his subtextual concerns to lead and frame the narrative.  In The Harbinger the forgetfulness the creature imposes on the rest of society once it has claimed its victims (it literally pulls people out of history) is a reminder of the disruption created by the Covid pandemic, with people not being with their loved ones when they died and acquaintances dropping from memory during the conditions of lockdown.

A genuinely creepy, atmospheric, slow-burn chamber piece, The Harbinger takes an approach which has become the mainstream of the modern supernatural horror film and defines many of its masterpieces; The Witch, Hereditary, and The Babadook.  The approach may often eschew gore and the more dynamic surface pleasures of the genre, but there is often a thoughtful approach and respect for the audience’s intelligence.

If I was to be asked in the future what horror film best summed up for me the experience of Covid, my answer would be and is likely to remain, The Harbinger.