Harbinger Down is a 2015 American independent science-fiction monster horror film written and directed by Alec Gillis and produced by Tom Woodruff, Jr.; the founders of the special effects company StudioADI.
The plot of the film follows a group of graduate students aboard the titular fishing trawler Harbinger, who are studying the effects of global warming on a pod of Orcas in the Bering Sea. When the ship's crew discover a block of ice that is infected with alien bacteria, they are attacked by shapeshifting alien monsters.
Funded by fan donations through Kickstarter, the film predominantly features practical creature effects created by ADI through the use of animatronics, prosthetic makeup, stop motion and miniature effects, with limited use of computer generated imagery, used only to enhance creature effects (such as to digitally erase wires and gimbles used to articulate the creatures).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.
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