FILM REVIEW: HARPOON (2019)

HARPOON will be available on the ARROW VIDEO CHANNEL (and also Amazon Prime and Apple TV) from 18th October
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CAST: Munro Chambers, Emily Tyra, Christopher Gray
Writer/Director/Editor Rob Grant
Producer​ Michael Peterson Kurtis David Harder

Life on the Ocean waves has never been so much bloody fun.

Rob Grant's latest film Harpoon, is a witty, bloody and tense psychological horror that manages to do the almost impossible and make a horror film about a trio of young Americans both funny, thrilling and captivating.  

I've never been quite sure who the plethora of horror films starring young and attractive Americans are aimed at. In most instances, the protagonists of these sort of films are typically so annoying, that within ten minutes you kind of wish the killer would level up with a nuclear bomb and wipe them from the face of the planet, before you have to endure another minute of their super tanned and ultra-white smug smiles. As my gran used to say "there is nought as obnoxious as an American kid in a horror film".  

Don't get wrong the characters in Harpoon are obnoxious and highly toxic, you'd hate to be one of their close friends, hell the film opens up with one of them beating the living daylights out of another one, just because he believes that he may have slept with his girlfriend. And that's just for starters, as the film progresses and the secrets and lies of their relationships are exposed for all to see not one of them ever comes across as anything other than utterly vile. But that doesn't matter, despite you never being able to root for any of them, Grant's witty and sparse script, combined with his assured direction means that you will be glued to the screen lapping up every minute of this nasty nautical thriller.  

Most of you will be able to count on the fingers of just one hand the number of great horror-comedies, it's one of the hardest things to get right, for every Shaun of the Dead there is a million Transylvania 6-5000s and a billion failed chances to raise a smile or shiver down your spine.  

Rob Grant's Harpoon hits the mark on both the horror and the comedy, in a film that perfectly balances personal drama, a few fantastically gory scenes, and sense of humour that holds everything together rather than getting in the way of the plot.  ​

One of the key features over and above the script is the perfect casting of the American Comedian and actor Brett Gelman, who provides a sly and sarcastic narration to the film, think Arrested Development mixed with Marvin the Paranoid Robot. Initially, you may be forgiven for thinking that the inclusion of a narration track to a movie that doesn't need it would be a step too far, but Gelman's delivery and the surgical precision of where it is inserted into the film is nothing short of pure genius. It never gets in the way and lays the foundation for a couple of running jokes that will have you doubling over with laughter. In fact, Gelman's narration helps to fill in several plot holes as well as going to explain just why these three desperate character's lives are so intertwined and codependent on each other. The narrator has a sort of voice of God feel to it, but this is not a loving God, oh no, he has nothing short of almost utter disdain for the protagonists. His recounting of seafaring superstitions comes across as an "I told you, but you wouldn't listen" checklist of why all these bad things are happening to you.  ​

The script is an excellent example of less is more. This is essentially a two location film with 95% of the film being set on the boat, which allows for the film to have a tremendous claustrophobic background for the tensions and fighting to play against. We know that there is no escape or respite for our three protagonists.  

Grant could have used the script as a look at the class war, and how the rich boys can basically do and say anything they want without any fear of reprisals, but Grant thankfully keeps this theme to a bare minimum. Instead, he keeps the script focused on delivering a strong look at toxic friendships, we all have them, and we all know we really should throw those people overboard, but, like the characters in the film, we just can't.  

There are echoes, of many literary and film classics littered throughout the film, such as Lifeboat, Alive, and even Moby Dick, the viewer will get a kick at pinpointing many of these nods to other films, while the secrets and lies and the truth about the interrelationships between the protagonists unfolds. ​

Chambers, Gray and Tyra are having a ball as the three protagonists of the film, as mentioned above they pull off the unheard off, and make each of the characters unrelatable and unlikeable, without ever crossing the line into "oh my God just die already". Even Emily Tyra's character, who initially is the most likeable of the three, quickly descends from her loving mother-like figure to a harridan of the highest order.  

​Christopher Gray excels as the spoilt rich kid with serious anger problems; strangely, he becomes the most likeable of the three despite being a complete piece of work. You tell he is relishing at being allowed to throw everything into this performance. Munro Chambers turn as the poor, put upon, Jonah is also a strong performance, only hampered by his somewhat meh character. I felt the filmmakers wanted us to have him as the focal point for our sympathy, but he ends up being just a bit too pathetic, and almost a caricature of what we perceive as everything that is wrong with millennials.  

Adding to the overall enjoyment of the film is an excellent sense of cinematography from Charles Hamilton, who brings a tremendous sense of style and atmosphere to these three people stuck on a small boat film.  

Harpoon is a brutal, dark comedy, and it is hugely enjoyable and highly inventive. You will laugh, cringe and scream obscenities at the screen as lies and revelations of our three protagonists unfold in front of you. 

Harpoon is a razor-sharp comedy, even if it is a speargun.   ​​