COVID Horror The Harbinger Is an Enticingly Terrifying Trip into a Nightmare
No one would blame you for rolling your eyes when you hear the phrase “COVID horror film.” Given the genre’s unique ability to digest and reflect upon societal anxieties we all knew this day would come. Pessimistically, you can just picture all of the low-budget Outbreak-esque reactionary cash grabs making their way through editing suites at this very moment. But hear me out: The Harbinger is great. It uses the still-present pandemic as a setting for elevated tension and mistrust, but at its core is a thoughtful and terrifying reflection of truly basic fears.
Right from the very start, The Harbinger makes it clear that it takes place early in the pandemic, a time when we knew enough to mask up and stay socially distant, but when people had yet to be vaccinated and were still rubbing Lysol all over their groceries before putting them away in the fridge. But before we get there, we start with a doozy of a nightmare.
Mavis (Emily Davis) lives in a typical apartment building in Queens, and is hated by her neighbors. It is not that she is rude or stinky, but loud at night. Very loud. Her shrieking and moaning are unintentional, as they are made while she is deeply sleeping and having sustained nightmares. She also sleepwalks throughout these spells and not even scratching her arm to the point of bleeding will wake her. She knows she needs help, but is all alone. Alone and, thanks to the state of the world, isolated. The only person she can reach out to is her college friend Monique (Gabby Beans).
Mo moved back home along with brother Lyle (Myles Walker) to make sure dad (Raymond Anthony Thomas) is taken care of during the pandemic. The family is loving, supporting and has a heaping dose of humor too. Unpacking and disinfecting the contents of their grocery bags is nearly a throwaway scene, but this family makes it seem like a choreographed act to demonstrate just how well they function as a unit. All is well with them until Mo gets a call from Mavis and makes the unpopular decision to go tend to her friend in the city at the height of viral transmission.
It seems Mavis’s nightmares are not just the garden-variety deep sleeps. After Mo arrives and they do the dance of unmasking and hugging, Mavis tells Mo about the increasing severity of her dreams. The spells can last days, and are inhabited by a terrifying bird-nosed character in black robes. This creature tells her of her imminent danger and is the main character in her mental demise. All of this would be unsettling enough, but on top of them (literally) is the non-stop coughing of their upstairs neighbor. Even isolated together, there is no ignoring the global crisis around them. As these two old friends try to dig to the origin of the nightmare-conducting entity, things go from bad to worse. They learn that not only is the thing relentless, but that it is not affecting them alone.