The Harbinger

Writer/director Andy Mitton follows up his Vermont-set first feature The Witch in the Window with another atmospheric and chilling horror film. Filmed under difficult circumstances during the pandemic, The Harbinger is set in New York and follows Monique as she ventures out of quarantine to visit an old friend who is plagued by nightmares she can’t wake up from. But the nightmares, and the dark force behind them which takes the form of a plague doctor, prove as contagious as any deadly virus. Monique finds herself drawn into a hellish dreamscape where she must face her greatest fears - or risk never having existed at all.

My touchstone for this tonally - because obviously there’s Elm Street and Freddy Krueger, people are automatically going to think of anyone working in dreams is like standing on the shoulders of Freddy Krueger to some degree, and I do love that - but Jacob’s Ladder was the film that I was really reaching for and studying, because it’s one of the first films to really scare me. And it does involve dreams and, you know, surreal layers of consciousness and transitions that you aren’t expecting, but also, it’s just more human. The camera is more relaxed and handheld like it is in the Harbinger, and it feels more down and dirty, and less just stylized and surreal and there to mess with you for the sake of it. I tried to mess with people with intention, or purpose.

Director Andy Mitton, from an interview with Eye For Film