Starring Lance Henriksen, Giovannie Samuels, Matt Winston,, Camille Balsamo, Reid Collums, Mike Estime, Milla Bjorn, Winston James Francis, Jason Speer, Edwin H Bravo, Sean Serino, Morgana Ignis and Kraig W. Sturtz

Written and directed by Alec Gillis

On Amazon Prime / disc now

In 1982 a Soviet moon lander crashes into the Bering Sea. Decades later Stephen (Matt Winston), a biology professor and his two postgrad students Sadie (Balsamo) and Ronelle (Giovonnie Samuels) charter Sadie’s grandfather’s trawler, the Harbinger. But when they discover the lander, and what it was carrying, everything changes.

Alec Gillis’s special effects company, ADI, was hired by Universal back in 2011 to do the practical effects for The Thing prequel. When the majority of their work was replaced last minute by CGI, the crew were justifiably very upset. The outpouring of support for practical effects led Gillis to run a kickstarter for Harbinger Down, pledging to only use practical effects outside rod/rig removal and digital compositing. The budget was $350,000 and it raised it comfortably.

Ten years on, it’s interesting to revisit Inanimate as it’s known on Amazon Prime. Like all movies of this sort and scale, elements don’t work but it’s weirdly churlish to point them out. $350,000 was cheap for budget a decade ago. Now it’s a line item for a big movie and every dollar of that money is put to use here. The trawler set especially is impressive precisely because of how physical and real it is, to the extent that Reid Collums, who plays Bowman, participated in its construction to help get a feel for his role. That’s really cool however you cut it, and the movie’s full of nice moments like that. The actual monster is tremendously gooey and Gillis uses some well handled stop motion and reverse filming to give it a sense of presence that really works. There are elements of Sam Raimi’s early work too, and Gillis combines Raimi’s frantic camera with the sort of grounded, close-in character stuff that the Alien movies do so well, as Romulus reminded us last year. There are some ropey spots, but this is a crowdfunded movie with a budget of functional pennies. You get what you pay for and Gillis delivers more than others would for that cost.

The movie’s problem, ironically, is in its ambition. The cast are too big, and the three or four performers who get some meaty stuff to do eclipse the other half whose job is to stand around and wait to be killed. Lance Henriksen is typically great, but if you’re expecting him to be the lone load-bearing cast member you’re wrong. Matt Winston (the son of special effects legend Stan Winston no less!) and one of those actors you’ve seen everywhere, not the least of which is Enterprise, is great as the wonderfully assholish Stephen. Milla Bjorn has fun as the mysterious Svetlana but the show is stolen by Winston James Francis as ‘Big G’. Seven feet of cheerful bear, Francis is utterly believable as the designated big guy on a ship like this. Francis gets some surprising heavy lifting to do for the plot too, as does Collums as Bowman.

Unfortunately, outside them the cast are given precious little which is a massive shame. It also leads to an oddly rushed third act where we go from a handful of survivors to the exact number you think in a heartbeat. It’s frustrating in particular because this is the sort of script that would shine with another pass and they just didn’t quite have the time.

Verdict: Inanimate is exactly what it set out to be: an old school practical effects monster movie. If you don’t like those, there’s nothing for you here. If you do, you’ll have a blast. I did. 6/10

Alasdair Stuart