Directed by:
Andrew CummingScreenplay:
Ruth GreenbergCinematography:
Ben FordesmanComposer:
Adam Janota BzowskiVOD (3)
Plots(1)
From the producer of Saint Maud, you’ve never seen a horror film like this before. Set in the Stone Age, a tight knit tribe of early humans are on a journey to find new land and secure a better future for themselves. As they navigate unknown and treacherous terrain, they realise that something lurks in the darkness. As the group fall victim one-by-one, one young woman stands between the survival of the tribe and their gruesome demise. (Signature Entertainment)
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Reviews (4)
At first it's a bit annoying when the introductory half hour with a bunch of prehistoric people seems like a necessary evil, but once it switches to survival mode it's great. Beautifully shot, atmospheric, suspenseful. And in the end, it turns out that Out of Darkness isn't just the expected prehistoric variation on Predator, but that the story makes sense and is well conceived. I would have ideally imagined the protagonists a level more rugged, it didn't strike me as 100% authentic, but I'm not an expert on the fashion and grooming habits of people 45,000 years ago, so I won't go into more detail. Anyway, the first good genre film this year.
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Rambo: First Blood... seems to suggest that the premiere of menstruation attracts both animal and sexual predators, but the genre shift to the eaters of the dead and bone tomahawks will sort these attackers out. The Scottish landscape and musical score would certainly benefit from more visual storytelling at the expense of dialogue, but that would push the Paleolithic horror of male weakness towards ambiguity and distrust in the viewer's intelligence. A careful viewer might notice, at the 64-minute mark, a small building with a sign reading "Dental Clinic" at the base of the cliffs at the edge of the heath.
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If this was supposed to be the dark horse of the year, we're pretty much screwed. Out of Darkness lured us to a perfect monster survival horror movie, but unfortunately it didn't succeed in the slightest. The first 30 minutes didn't even seem to exist and the next hour didn't impress me much either. We have an "expensive" looking production design, yet I still find it hard to believe that the "first humans" were so well groomed and had such nicely tailored jackets and were just wandering around that beautiful landscape. Not to be only negative, I definitely have to single out the perfect music, which escalates nicely as the action gets going, but otherwise it's such a bland mess, it can't be said to hold any suspense or spark any interest, and it certainly can't be defended for such a dull and uninteresting ending. Weak nonsense.
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This year's first horror swallow, and it earns 4 stars. Out of Darkness was one of the dark horses of this year and while it is not a big hit that will be remembered, it stands reliably in the category of an adventurous dark survival horror film. I have to praise the excellent technical aspect and cinematography, the scenery is very nice and it doesn't look cheap, which is always a big plus. I appreciate the fact they speak an indigenous language, which adds to the authenticity. The atmosphere is also good, the fear of the unknown works well, and the music is probably the best element of the film, because the sound engineer does a masterful job here, with the musical score enhancing the atmosphere of every suspenseful twofold. There is also a bit of gore and the actual reveal of the "predator" might piss some people off, but for me it was an interesting twist and I didn't mind it. Considering that Stone Age horror is a rarity and nothing better has come out of the horror genre this year, 4 stars is absolutely spot on.
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