Harbinger Down Exceeds Funding Goal! Practical FX Monster Movie on its Way!

Steve Barton   |  

Jun 7, 2013

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Right now we have the kind of news we love to end the work week with. We told you about Harbinger Down, a tense, claustrophobic creature film that will feature only practical animatronic and makeup effects. Back then it was seeking funds via Kickstarter. Today it’s an absolute go!

Thanks to 3,066 monster-loving backers, $384,181 was pledged, exceeding their initial goal of $350,000. Screw Veronica Mars! This is the kind of thing Kickstarter was made for! Hollywood just won’t fund an original old-school monster movie, but it’s good to see that the fans will! Amalgamated Dynamics’ Alec Gillis writes and directs.

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 three decades, the creatures aren’t about to give up the warmth of human companionship.

Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr., are among the most talented and passionate FX men working today, and with Harbinger Down they hope to send a message to Hollywood that there is no substitute for good ol’ fashioned practical creatures. And they’re taking their approach one step further by hiring the best vets in the business to create models, miniatures and stop-motion techniques to create an experience that feels 100% authentic. How awesome is that?!?

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