How do you breathe new life into a really over-done horror concept: a group of humans, often with competing priorities and loyalties, is thrust into a situation where a monster or supernatural force or "something" is after them and slowly picking them off (often brutally)? Whether handled in a deeply serious manner (ALIEN, THE GREY, THE DESCENT) or in a campy manner (DEEP BLUE SEA), this basic concept is so baked into the DNA of cinema and is adjacent to the slasher film, where the group may not literally be together all the time (NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), but are picked off one by one. I separate the two in my head because some of the tropes are a bit different.
Anyway, these films can be fun, but are rarely terribly original anymore. A good director and a decent script can still wring a lot of entertainment for the setup, but still... So what a delight when a film like OUT OF DARKNESS comes along. It's set, very convincingly, in the STONE AGE!! Right there, I was interested. But in viewing the film, I discovered I had set my expectations too low. This is a pretty solid film!
We meet six Stone Age humans as they are arriving in a new land, having fled their earlier hunting grounds because the usual herd they preyed on was not to be found. While we don't know where they've landed in the story, the film was made in the Scottish Highlands. And they obviously found the bleakest, most windswept part of that beautiful area of the world, because you can sure see on the faces of these 6 desperate people that they don't see a lot of hope in the new land. Forbidding mountains surrounding valleys of relentless scrubby grasses and NO animals. Even the forest they come across is forbidding and bereft of life. No birds, even. They've clearly gone from a difficult land to a completely blighted one.
The leader of this group, Adem, and his brother Geirr, go on a scouting trip and discovered the completely (but recently) picked-over remains of a mammoth. Rather than rejoicing that mammoths are in the area; they are full of mis-givings. How did the animal die? Who picked it clean? Clearly, there is someone or something in the area...is it watching them? Even stalking them?
If you know this is a horror movie, you know it's likely to be stalking and not just watching. As these 6 huddle around their sad fire at night, surrounded by utter darkness, we can feel their fear and vulnerability. They know they are easy targets, yet they have nowhere to hide and no great place to run. So in their fear, they begin to bicker with each other, stirring up resentments and passions and superstitions that have them making some grave errors. When Adem's son Heron is snatched by whatever monster is stalking them, the group springs into action...but not the kind of action where cooler heads prevail. Adem rages impotently and wrecklessly. His brother, the reserved (cowardly?) Geirr is torn between loyalty to his brother and an interest in a young "stray" the group has picked up named Beyah, who knows how precarious her place in this group is. Adem's mate Ave, who is pregnant, knows her value to Adem is purely that she might bear him a child, and she sees that Adem is already telling Beyah that if Ave dies in childbirth, he will be her next choice. And if Ave doesn't die...well, there may just not be any use for Beyah afterall. The elderly Odal is the most superstitious of the bunch, speaking of the need to appease the monsters with sacrifices. It's a brew for internal discontent. So we have a great mix of deeply personal politics and a frightening, unseen monster stalking the group.
Director Andrew Cumming, working with a script he co-wrote with Ruth Greenberg and Oliver Kassman, does several crucial things really well. He quickly gives us the backstory we need for these characters, but not one bit more than is needed to create the context for the story we're witnessing. He establishes the characters, their ties, their motives and their fears very neatly, and his cast of relative unknowns rises to the task as well. Each actor must give a deeply physical performance, but must also juggle a language that was created for them. And as I said, the details of the lives of Stone Age humans are very convincingly rendered. I don't know what an anthropologist would say, but certainly I felt very immersed in this world.
So why not give the film a perfect score? I would say that the actual horror elements are handled less well. The action sequences are too dark and disjointed. While the mood is fabulously well established, and a sense of doom presides over everything...when IT hits the fan, I wasn't properly jolted. And, despite a brief run time, there are at least two or three minutes that could have been cut. There was perhaps just a bit too much of them trekking around their landscape. The bleakness had long since been established; it started to feel like filler.
Seeing OUT OF DARKNESS, I realized that I want to see a movie about the very difficult lives of Stone Age people. The contrasts (and similarities) between how they lived and how we live were very interesting. (I know we don't know all these details about folks from 45,000 years ago, but the film speculates very convincingly. These are humans who are really just starting to distinguish themselves from animals.)
OUT OF DARKNESS, when I think back on it in years to come, will be less of a horror movie and more of a movie that takes old clichés and imbues them with new life by giving us a group of characters we've really not seen before. (I look forward to a physical media release that includes lots of good "making-of" stuff. The movie was very low budget, but clearly made with great care.)
Anyway, these films can be fun, but are rarely terribly original anymore. A good director and a decent script can still wring a lot of entertainment for the setup, but still... So what a delight when a film like OUT OF DARKNESS comes along. It's set, very convincingly, in the STONE AGE!! Right there, I was interested. But in viewing the film, I discovered I had set my expectations too low. This is a pretty solid film!
We meet six Stone Age humans as they are arriving in a new land, having fled their earlier hunting grounds because the usual herd they preyed on was not to be found. While we don't know where they've landed in the story, the film was made in the Scottish Highlands. And they obviously found the bleakest, most windswept part of that beautiful area of the world, because you can sure see on the faces of these 6 desperate people that they don't see a lot of hope in the new land. Forbidding mountains surrounding valleys of relentless scrubby grasses and NO animals. Even the forest they come across is forbidding and bereft of life. No birds, even. They've clearly gone from a difficult land to a completely blighted one.
The leader of this group, Adem, and his brother Geirr, go on a scouting trip and discovered the completely (but recently) picked-over remains of a mammoth. Rather than rejoicing that mammoths are in the area; they are full of mis-givings. How did the animal die? Who picked it clean? Clearly, there is someone or something in the area...is it watching them? Even stalking them?
If you know this is a horror movie, you know it's likely to be stalking and not just watching. As these 6 huddle around their sad fire at night, surrounded by utter darkness, we can feel their fear and vulnerability. They know they are easy targets, yet they have nowhere to hide and no great place to run. So in their fear, they begin to bicker with each other, stirring up resentments and passions and superstitions that have them making some grave errors. When Adem's son Heron is snatched by whatever monster is stalking them, the group springs into action...but not the kind of action where cooler heads prevail. Adem rages impotently and wrecklessly. His brother, the reserved (cowardly?) Geirr is torn between loyalty to his brother and an interest in a young "stray" the group has picked up named Beyah, who knows how precarious her place in this group is. Adem's mate Ave, who is pregnant, knows her value to Adem is purely that she might bear him a child, and she sees that Adem is already telling Beyah that if Ave dies in childbirth, he will be her next choice. And if Ave doesn't die...well, there may just not be any use for Beyah afterall. The elderly Odal is the most superstitious of the bunch, speaking of the need to appease the monsters with sacrifices. It's a brew for internal discontent. So we have a great mix of deeply personal politics and a frightening, unseen monster stalking the group.
Director Andrew Cumming, working with a script he co-wrote with Ruth Greenberg and Oliver Kassman, does several crucial things really well. He quickly gives us the backstory we need for these characters, but not one bit more than is needed to create the context for the story we're witnessing. He establishes the characters, their ties, their motives and their fears very neatly, and his cast of relative unknowns rises to the task as well. Each actor must give a deeply physical performance, but must also juggle a language that was created for them. And as I said, the details of the lives of Stone Age humans are very convincingly rendered. I don't know what an anthropologist would say, but certainly I felt very immersed in this world.
So why not give the film a perfect score? I would say that the actual horror elements are handled less well. The action sequences are too dark and disjointed. While the mood is fabulously well established, and a sense of doom presides over everything...when IT hits the fan, I wasn't properly jolted. And, despite a brief run time, there are at least two or three minutes that could have been cut. There was perhaps just a bit too much of them trekking around their landscape. The bleakness had long since been established; it started to feel like filler.
Seeing OUT OF DARKNESS, I realized that I want to see a movie about the very difficult lives of Stone Age people. The contrasts (and similarities) between how they lived and how we live were very interesting. (I know we don't know all these details about folks from 45,000 years ago, but the film speculates very convincingly. These are humans who are really just starting to distinguish themselves from animals.)
OUT OF DARKNESS, when I think back on it in years to come, will be less of a horror movie and more of a movie that takes old clichés and imbues them with new life by giving us a group of characters we've really not seen before. (I look forward to a physical media release that includes lots of good "making-of" stuff. The movie was very low budget, but clearly made with great care.)