Harpoon (2019)

(On Cable TV, May 2020) Lean, mean and single-mindedly built for thrills, the nasty little comic dark thriller Harpoon does a lot with little. For most of its 82 minutes, it focuses on the drama-rich premise of three friends going at each other (verbally, emotionally, physically) on a small broken-down boat in the ocean far away from everything else. The three already being on bad terms before the film even begins, it just keeps getting worse throughout the film. An omniscient narrator guides us through the twists and turns and reversals of fates and a mean (but well-deserved) sting at the end. If nothing else, writer-director Rob Grant is clearly aware of the kind of dark-humour horror film he’s making, and seldom misses an opportunity to twist the knife. It’s a type of approach that won’t work equally well for everyone, though—while Harpoon is ghoulishly entertaining, viewers shouldn’t be surprised at how much they hate all three characters by the time it ends.