Sommerleigh Pollonais – Horror Head Writer
There is something so good about finding a movie you know nothing about, having little to no expectations, and coming away thoroughly entertained.
Harpoon tells the story of three best friends who find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of nowhere. With food and water running out, tempers rise, secrets are exposed and the red stuff inevitably begins to flow!
Call me a sucker, but I love a good character-driven story where the plot takes a back seat and the actors show the audience you don’t need a big budget to keep your viewers engaged. It’s a huge gamble, because if the actors don’t deliver the movie will fall flat on its face. Thankfully, Harpoon doesn’t have that problem because all three of our leads, Munro Chambers, Christopher Gray and Emily Tyra, did fantastic jobs of bringing their characters Jonah, Richard and Sasha respectively to life. The trio ensures you the viewer are intrigued enough to keep watching the madness unfold, all the way to the end.
You may notice I’m not giving away any details, because I think this is a movie you should watch without knowing anything about it going in. I’m willing to give one little peak behind the curtain though and tell you, Harpoon is very much a dark comedy in the vein of films like The Guest, The Art of Self Defense or Better Watch Out. The horror/thriller elements are strong as well and blend nicely with the dark comedic tones, which had me pissed off at these people one minute and laughing along with them the next. Honestly, it made watching the movie feel more like you were one of the people on board this doomed yacht and any director who can pull that off deserves a bigger budget to show what he can REALLY do!
FYI, director Rob Grant actually worked on the editing for both War of the Planet of the Apes and Deadpool 2, so the guy knows how to put a scene or two together.
Harpoon is one of those movies where you think you know what’s going to happen but trust me when I say this one has some twists and turns in it. The movie also has a narrator who pops in every now and then to build on the comedic elements. It never felt forced or annoying but instead did a solid job of breaking up the tone of the story, which you’d think would be a bad thing, but instead it felt like the breather you needed when things were getting too dark.
Again, I don’t want to say much about this, for all those curious enough to give it a go. Keep in mind, it’s a small independent film, so don’t’ go in expecting The Meg or some craziness like that. Otherwise, I had a lot of fun with this one and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future flicks from Rob Grant, as well as movies starring this talented trio.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
For my Top 5 Zombie Comedies if you Love Zombieland you can click here. And for more darkly humorous articles you can follow Redmangoreviews on Facebook here.
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
Double Tap Baby!
You can also follow me as Moviejunkies Cont’d on Facebook and watch my movie review videos on YouTube. For my longer bio you can click here.