Harbinger Debuts: Terrifying Machinima Short Like Second Life Meets Saw

Harbinger is the short machinima feature I mentioned last month, a horror thriller by Phaylen Fairchild, on the order of Saw meets Second Life. You should really watch it as soon as you can -- ideally, after dimming the lights and turning the audio up full. WARNING: While not visually graphic, it's a dark and disturbing ride:

I see a lot of machinima, some that's good, but very few of which has the potential of becoming a feature film. Harbinger is one of those rare machinimas, a perfect mix of material and storyline that leaves you wanting more. Mainly shot in Second Life (called "Otherworlds" here), it's the story of reality crashing up against virtual roleplay, with "Harbinger" the Jigsaw-like villain hellbent on teaching a moral lesson in a uniquely twisted way.

“The idea, like so much of my real life writing, came from speculative thinking,” Phaylen tells me. “As technology evolves and the veil is lifted on anonymity in virtual worlds, people have developed this false sense of security.” With people increasingly comfortable and open in their 3D avatars, she says, “The guard is down. I kept thinking, ‘Man, all it's going to take is one crazy.’ We've already seen it happen on Craigslist. The thought made me wince, and I just started writing.”

While the story is scarily plausible, Phaylen increases the tension by incorporating snippets of real world video into the machinima:

“I needed it to be as real as possible,” she explains.

“This is a real person playing an avatar. You see her home, her cat, her computer screen, you see her reactions in her body language, her eyes, her hands. But we never see her. She could be anyone. The girl next door.”

Once inspired, Phaylen produced the project quickly, she tells me: “I wrote the film in 45 minutes, shot it in four days.” A friend introduced her to professional voiceover actor Marc Cholette: “‘[He] did his dialog in his recording studio and sent them to me in 24 hours. I recorded mine after that in order to listen to his lines and react off of his performance. I've never spoken to him directly, and my first email from him was his dialog files, so he had virtually no direction from me. But his performance is spine chilling. I couldn't be happier.” (While the movie is about the perils of trust and interaction online, making the movie also involved a lot of online trust -- just with much happier results.)

“Web etiquette and social deconstruction aside, I love a good villain,” says Phaylen Fairchild. “A clever villain. Harbinger is definitely a villain I'm proud to introduce to the metaverse via filmed entertainment. I just hope people never run into anyone like him.”

Update, 1:40PM: Just received some interview questions from Phaylen on the movie and her background:

Hamlet Au: Do you think the Harbinger has a valid point about false identities and relationships online?

Phaylen Fairchild: “I disagree with him entirely. I know many people who prefer not to share their identities, including myself, and it's not because we are attempting to create a false identity or reach for perfection, or have love affairs. Harbinger's opinion was extremist, rooted from the perspective that Technology is replacing the soul of mankind. I understand his point, but he's on a self-appointed cause. He probably thinks he's doing good for the world.”

When will we see Harbinger appear next?

“Not ever that I know of! The idea was to leave audiences with the feeling that this faceless man is out here somewhere. I wanted to allude to his mission; his intentions, his presence. It's often what we don't see that scares us the most. At least in my case."

Tell me a bit about your own professional background as a filmmaker/actress/etc.

“I'm a writer, machinima was my avenue to express myself in film where I control the visuals. I'm not an actress by any means. I ended up doing Harbinger because the role required someone willing to come unhinged and look like a fool yelling into their microphone...

“I've always kept my real life activities and my virtual life entirely separate. In fact, no one in my family; in my real life work or personal realm, outside of my significant other, knows what I do or have ever seen any of my films - and even he doesn't ‘get’ Second Life, nor does he have any interest in trying it! I have created a character, Phaylen, that is entirely unlike myself, but she is an entity all her own. I like that she has an independent identity."

Comments

[Robbie D]

Brilliant. The golden rule for successful horror of never fully showing the monster, mixed with a genuinely chilling voice. Excellent work.

[Extropia DaSilva]

That is the first Machinima I have seen that is intended to be unsettling and which I actually did find disturbing. Excellent!

My reply in such a situation? 'I care about David, not his primary. Goodbye'. Ctrl-Q.