This wasn't the worst written story ever. With a different approach, this might have been more impactful. But the execution is just about as amateurish as it gets. The tone of this movie is that of a melodramatic soap opera that ran out of ideas decades ago. NONE of the acting is any better than someone who just joined their local community theatre. At the same time, none of the performances are so bad as to be entertaining either. And the worst acting choices came from the performer who is supposed to be portraying the devil--the ultimate evil. He monologues. He throws fits of anger. He berates the protagonist for his failures. What he doesn't do is cause any actual harm to anyone. He just paces around and talks. The ONLY one who approaches their role properly is the child actor, Madeline McGraw (who also stood out in The Black Phone). She's clearly the only actor who will ever do anything significant after this. Also, the obviously fake reviews are very grating. But I have to admit, they got me: the movie had a good score when I decided to watch it. You really have to pay attention to the analytics these day. If I had, I might have avoided this suckfest. I should have known better.
Review of The Harbinger
