A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

While studying the effects of global warming on a pod of whales, grad students on a crabbing vessel and it's crew uncovers a froze soviet space shuttle, and unintentionally releases a monstrous organism from it. Harbinger Down is unfortunately a rip-off of the great 'The Thing' but also lacks any actual excitement in general. Lance Henrisken is the only good and experienced actor in the film but even he is just pretty forgettable as a whole. The special effects were pretty good but everything else? Were horrible and just terrible as a whole. (0/10)

Loved it, the feel of 80s and 90s sci-fi horror done with REAL EFFECTS not a green screen in sight. The FX team put there skills that where over looked by the director when making the thing remake/prequel that opted for almost total CGI effects (the norm in Hollywood, sadly). Well there loss is our gain, this feels like its what that remake could of offered, some "critics/reviewers" bandy around the word "ripoff" i prefer the term "affectionate nod" as this film has a few nice little touches that some proper fans will see n smile fondly at. Ill leave saying this if you where a fan of 80s/90s horror be of big budget or "B-movie" and you appreciate the real effects that films of that era was built on and the talents behind the bog franchises then this is a fond, welcome long overdue return to those days.

You can catch this on Netflix. If you've got nothing better to do, go ahead and watch. This is a definite attempt at John Carpenter's "The Thing". The monster is a virus type thingy that grows and can shape shift. It takes out the drama of it shifting into human form. It just goes from monster to liquid and back again. Everything is moderate for this movie from acting to script to special effects. The budget was probably pretty low, so take that into account. To top it all, the ship was supposed to explode at the end and it doesn't so you can add editing issues to the list. The monster is kind of fun to watch, but not overly scary.

In one sense, this is a special case. In another, it deserves the same critical treatment as everything else. Low-budget, independently- produced movies need to compete on the same playing field as the big stuff. We don't want Kickstarter funding to become an excuse. On the other hand, some of the crueler reviews have, I think, a rather rose- tinted view of what 80s creature features were really like. They weren't all Aliens. That's magic in a bottle, and it isn't available to order for any amount of money - or Hollywood would be able to buy it, which it's becoming increasingly clear they can't.So, with these mixed views in mind, I rather liked Harbinger Down. If it sets out to avoid becoming saturated in embarrassing CGI, it succeeds, but naturally more is required than that. The performances are fine, given the painfully thin script - people knocking the actors need to consider the writing they've been given. The script is perhaps most kindly described as functional, and barely so. Henriksen is, of course, a massively experienced guy, and always a pleasure. The cinematography is absolutely rock-solid and a great advertisement for both Benjamin L. Brown and the staggeringly low-cost camera it was shot on. Both the pictures and Christopher Drake's score, and of course the creature effects, elevate the film way, way above the depths to which many low- budget sci-fi movies fall.So let's not be too harsh on Harbinger Down. Behind-the-scenes shots suggest that the creature effects could have been made more of on screen, a fair criticism that's been raised before, and the script is a letdown. But again, it's a genre creature feature. For a bit more creature and a bit more story and characterization it could have been better, but on the off-chance that some sort of renaissance of the golden age of sci-fi and fantasy filmmaking can be launched from this movie, or movies like it, I'm enthusiastic. If Blomkamp does get to do Alien 5, he'd be an idiot not to involve Woodruff and Gillis.