Director Andrew Cumming’s feature directorial debut, Out of Darkness, brings audiences back to the Stone Age for some tense horror that’s aesthetically impressive, but needs more meat on its bones.
Out of Darkness follows a group of people living in the Stone Age as they travel to a new home. Despite their own inner conflicts, which causes some tension, the biggest threat to their survival is a mysterious entity that lurks in the shadows. As the unseen force inches closer, it snatches the youngest of the group – sending everyone else on a frantic rescue mission. Unfortunately, this only brings them into a deadly fight for their lives against this vicious foe – who they come to learn isn’t so different from them.
Although Out of Darkness has a smaller scale, it boasts a larger-than-life setting that’s excellently captured through Cumming’s direction and Ben Fordesman’s stunning cinematography. There’s a jaw-dropping vastness to these wide shots of open landscapes that’s genuinely striking. It’s gorgeous and the experience only gets better when more immersive elements are introduced. As the group heads into this seemingly endless forest with towering trees, there’s a sense of claustrophobia that overtakes film and ups the thrilling nature of the group being hunted. The film’s intensity only heightens as darkness swallows the scene and the use of nightfall raises the tension in key moments.
Darkness acts as this great tool in Cumming’s horror arsenal and helps create this foreboding mood that persists as much as this mysterious force does. In terms of horror, Out of Darkness has just enough to chew on to please genre fans. There are a couple good scares and one shockingly gory kill that’ll leave more squeamish viewers squirming. Plus, Cumming isn’t afraid to tackle more grounded survival horrors to build up some unsettling aspects of the group’s journey. However, the film could’ve used stronger horror elements to make better use of its central predator.
Throughout the film, it’s hard not to get vibes of Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey through the central concept of a deadly figure stalking a near-helpless band of survivors. Yet, you barely ever see the entity in its full form, and it’s relegated to hiding in the shadows – often performing bittersweet off-screen kills. The film doesn’t give the entity a memorable personality or trait that audiences can connect with and its design is equally as unmemorable. The scares are too light, and the film falls into dull melodrama more than anyone would like. Even worse, the reveal of the entity’s identity is remarkably underwhelming and totally knocks the wind out of the film’s momentum.
There’s such a strong sense of mystery and curiosity around this shadowy force that it literally drives the engagement. But then sadly, its reveal only leaves viewers confused and saying a befuddled “Wait, what?” in the moment because it’s so weird and unexpected in an unsatisfying way. Plus, it takes the film in a different direction that’s made or totally broken by your reaction to this twist. If you’re intrigued by where the reveal takes things, then the final stretch could be interesting. But, if you’re disappointed by what this thing actually is, then it’s a finale devoid of meaning or excitement as a viewer.
The fallout of this turn in the narrative isn’t helped by the overall lack of depth with the characters and this world. There isn’t enough time dedicated to fully exploring the characters, their relationships, or the world-building the film attempts to connect to in its finale. So, a lot of narrative comes off hollow and never leaves much of an impact on viewers. Overall, the overarching survival narrative is fine to hold viewers over the quick roughly 90-minute runtime. But it’s not enough to really make you care and could even come off boring to some. Frankly, not even the solid performances can elevate the film and you’ll find yourself begging for something more exciting or connective to happen.
Out of Darkness shows some good potential for Cumming as a director thanks to some of the horror atmosphere he creates as well as the stunning environment he captures. However, none of it is enough to make the film worthwhile. It’s largely thwarted by a disappointing twist and struggles to create engagement with anything outside of its eerie potential.
