With Hollywood abusing CGI, the promise of a practical effects heavy creature feature is just what the horror doctor ordered.

Arriving on VOD and in select theaters on August 7th is the crowd-sourced Harbinger Down, the directorial debut of Stan Winston protege Alec Gillis, with ADI (aka Amalgamated Dynamics) co-founder Tom Woodruff, Jr. producing. The duo promised to deliver a tense, claustrophobic creature film that would feature only practical animatronic and makeup effects. The latter proved to be true.

While the concept behind Harbinger Down is simple (alien-like creature running amok on a ship), the actual plot is dense and confusing. The press release explains that it’s about a group of grad students studying the effects of global warming in the Bering Sea. The ship’s crew dredges up a recently thawed piece of old Soviet space wreckage that contains the film’s “creature”. The Russians experimented with tardigrades, which are tiny resilient animals able to withstand the extremes of space radiation. The creatures survived, only they’re now mutated and incredibly deadly.

And while many of the effects are cool, per se, the lack of filmmaking experience bleeds onto the screen. Gillis and Woodruff, Jr. may know how to create the coolest of horror effects, but they have no idea how to capture them on film – nor hold back when necessary. The creature work on screen becomes gluttonous, hanging on many shots until the viewer can see just how fake and rubbery everything is. On the other end, the camerawork at times is frantic and messy, as if done in hopes of hiding the rubbery look of the filmmakers’ creations that look way too fake in HD.

The worst offense Harbinger Down makes is becoming a The Thing/Alien fan film. Instead of doing something new, it feels like a poorly executed and assembled rehash of the aforementioned classics. Was it overly ambitious? Maybe. But, at the end of the day, a film needs to be judged by what ends up on screen, not how much love went into it. With that said, Harbinger Down is more of an extremely boring Syfy movie than a new sci-fi horror classic.

Even with the overuse of effects, Harbinger Down could have been saved with a solid screenplay. Unfortunately, there’s no good news here, either. Beyond the frustratingly complex set up, it’s impossible to tell who the film’s protagonist is. Is it Aliens star Lance Henriksen? Or maybe it’s the bland and forgettable Saide, played by Camille Balsamo (above, right)? Weirdly, I started to think the Russian character, Svet (Milla Bjorn), was the film’s homage to Ripley. Bjorn (above, left) delivers a powerhouse of a performance that holds the film on her back, at least until she’s abducted by the creature.

I really wanted to like Harbinger Down, but felt burned out by the end credits. It’s a bleak, tiring and vanilla creature feature that’s sadly forgettable. I don’t recommend going down with the ship.