Harbinger Down
Remember back in the day where we would marvel at the Alien or the creature(s) from The Thing and wonder how the hell they did all that? For those of us who lived far away and without the proper resources, the rise of DVDs, Blu-ray, not to mention YouTube and the net in general we were able to learn these secrets. And then it all went downhill. CGI took a few leaps forward (although not much) and it dominated. Granted there are a few filmmakers that understand by blending a few CGI bits over practical can work wonders but it seems those filmmakers are few and far between.
If anyone remembers the remake/reboot/prequel/ of The Thing titled…The Thing that came out a couple years ago, you will see what I mean. The original had some amazing practical effects by the legend that is Rob Bottin, as well as contributions from Stan Winston after Bottin suffered from burnout. The prequel had the two makeup legends Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff do the makeup effects only for them to be (at times completely) replaced by CGI. In retaliation they put forward a Kickstarter campaign and a few years down the line also with the help of Dark Dunes productions we have Harbinger Down.
Just like Ong Bak did back in the day where it proudly advertised that all the fight scenes were done without CGI or wires, Harbinger Down is a back to basics old school horror that carries the DNA of both Alien and The Thing to name a few.
Taken from the official website here is the synopsis. A group of grad students have booked passage on the fishing trawler Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas 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.
An official release date has yet to be announced but until then I strongly urge you to head over to ADI’s YouTube channel and see their progress as well as behind the scenes for not only Harbinger Down but for all the creature movies we grew up on.
Come on ya’ll let’s show some support.
ADI youtube page
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/studioADI/featured
Trailer:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjiCQgiM7-I
<Harbinger Down.docx>
Directed by Alec Gillis.
Starring: Lance Henriksen, Matt Winston, Giovonnie Samuels, Camille Balsamo, Wnston James Francis, Michael Estime, Jason Speer, Reid Collums, Mick Ignis, Edwin H. Bravo, Milla Bjorn, Kraig Sturtz.
