Spoilers are not sleeping tonight.

If you’re familiar with Fantasia, you’ve probably been wondering at what point I’m going to review an actual horror film. Wonder no more. You probably remember this feature’s director Andy Mitton from THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW (2018) and WE GO ON (2016). Now he’s back with one the best (meaning horrifying) films you can dream of (thanks for the nightmare fuel btw). Prepare for a few sleepless nights. You’re welcome.

THE HARBINGER (2022) was written, directed, edited and composed by Andy Mitton. Monique “Mo” (Gaby Beans) is keeping herself safe during covid lockdown with her father Ronald (Raymond Anthony Thomas) and her brother Lyle (Myles Walker). After receiving a distress call from her best friend Mavis (Emily Davis), Mo is willing to risk going out there to help. Mavis’ problem is having hyper-realistic nightmares of a demon that’s coming for her with the intention of erasing her from existence. Mo is not only in over her head, she soon starts seeing the same figure in her dreams.

Haunting nightmares are not a new concept in horror, but this film is pushing the envelope by adding levels of inception that involve erasing someone out of their own reality. The idea you could be forgotten doesn’t seem as terrifying until the thought becomes pervasive showing how it could have happen before Mavis, after and even beyond her. It’s literally a contagious person-to-person curse that propagates without mercy. It’s easy to draw parallels to a pandemic because it exists in the world of this movie as a reminder that things can get worse.

Strongly recommended for audiences that can appreciate a horror, nail-biting, scary movie that puts the fear under your skin and then some. The director explicitly avoids the music beats that normally give away the oncoming threats and doesn’t rely on different lighting or shadows to spoil when we’re inside Mo’s dream and when things are real. Worth a few watches as long as you were not planning on sleeping that night.

That will do for now.