The first shot of Andrew Cumming’s debut feature is impressive; a spot on a black screen increases in size, resolving itself into a campfire, around which sits the film’s Stone Age ‘family’, with young Heron (Luna Mwezi) asking to hear a bedtime story. The account that’s given is the family’s history of how they came to occupy the “old and dark” land, an inhospitable spot full of nighttime terrors.
The other members of the group include leader and Heron’s father Adem (Chuku Modu), his brother Geirr (Kit Young), Adem’s pregnant mate Ave (Iola Evans), elder Odal (Arno Lüning) and young Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green), a ‘stray’ recently adopted by the others, whose value to the group as an additional child bearer is secured when she menstruates for the first time, particularly after Ave loses the child.
As if wilderness survival isn’t tough enough, there’s a ‘something’ stalking the land; whatever it is, it’s big enough to leave piles of bloodied bones in its wake and cause harm to members of the family. Ultimately it’s Beyah who becomes the hero of the piece (not least for persuading the others to eat one of their fallen family in order to survive), but as the movie progresses, the question is (silently) asked as to where the line is drawn between human and animal in this prehistoric world.
Out of Darkness does a lot with not much. If one can ignore the rather tidy haircuts and well-fed faces of the cast, a lot of work has been done to establish these characters as 'other', down to the guttural ‘Tola’ language spoken; the whole movie is subtitled. The plight of the family is supported by crisp photography and natural lighting (what there is of it).
This isn’t a horror film as such, but Cumming mounts the scares and the tense moments just like your favourite fright flick. Ultimately the real horror here is the desolate existence carved out by a civilisation who may have left the caves but have yet to acquire the skills to stave off starvation and external threat.
A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site.
As we join them they’re off to a country pile in deepest Wales, where a high end fashion advert is being filmed; their challenge is to break into the house, liberate the clothes being modelled, and scarper. But when Thea and Louise finally locate the seemingly deserted place, all is clearly not well. By reviewing production film on a discarded laptop, they witness an awful incident that is the prelude to the awakening of an ancient, dark force. And it’s only thanks to the police, who re-assembled events from available recovered footage, that we get to understand the horror that unfolded.
I can’t give too much away about the plot of this British found footage movie, except to mention that a lot of its appeal lies in the change of tone from its wittier, lighter first half – where a lot of the fun is witnessing the urban YouTubers getting to grips with the countryside - to a darker second act, and in the meshing of the two storylines. Along with the other cast members Ducles and Moritz largely improvise their shtick and it’s a relief that this works perfectly; you might actually want to watch ‘They Deserve it’.
Director Matthew Butler-Hart’s choice of location - Abercynrig House in Brecon – is perfect for the hand held shenanigans one expects from a FF experience, and while Dagr does descend into running around and screaming for the last 30 of its brief 77 minutes, the whole thing is handled with a panache that injects new life into a sub genre that everyone – me included – thought had breathed its last.
A version of this review was originally published on the Bloody Flicks site.
In thrall to 'vintage' aquatic creature features like 1989's Leviathan and Deep Star Six, GoDP takes place on a 'deep diving submersible' called Providence 3, capable of negotiating depths formerly unheard of; which is handy because the sponsors of the vessel, the Pickman Corp, have recently discovered what looks like an ancient portal deep beneath the ocean. The Corp have assembled a crack team to pilot the craft to the depths, including James Peters (Derek Nelson), Miskatonic University marine research expert (you've probably guessed by now from the references; like Steeds's previous feature, Freeze, we're in Lovecraft territory), marine biologist Christine Harris (Makenna Guyler), and a shadowy member of the Pickman family (Chris Lines).
You surely do not need to be told that once submerged a) the crew do indeed find something and bring it back to the craft, b) it starts to misbehave and c) at least one of the crew unveils their ulterior motive for the whole mission. With Steeds's by now familiar low budget limitations, don't expect any massive F/X set pieces here (although there's a nifty end scene which makes effective use of CGI). Most of the director's practical effects are limited to some tentacular action, the discovery itself (which looks like it was assembled from items found in the local garden centre) and a rather impressive Cthulhu sized aquatic creature.
An on point 80s score from Matt (Vampire Virus) Aker and the usual high Steeds production values make this an impressive, if at times empty watch. But there is no denying the director's 'quart from a pint pot' talents; there's a lot of fun to be had here, even if all you get from it is a quick round of 80s monster movie bingo.
Ella lives in the shadow of her mother, Suzanne (Stella Gonet), a famous animator. Suffering from arthritis, mum is no longer able to manipulate the armature inside the models she uses for her stop frame movies, so Ella helps her. Ella, also an animator, struggles to develop original ideas so ends up helping her mother finish hers: but when Suzanne has a massive stroke, ending up in a coma, her daughter has to move into an empty flat in a deserted block to complete the film.
But after meeting a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) in the supposedly empty building, Suzanne is encouraged to change the characters in the animation to tell a much darker story.
Morgan's debut feature is a woozy mix of animation and live action, which - of course - calls forth memories of the films of Jan Švankmajer and, in Ella's isolation and dislocated mental state, Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanski's 1965 movie Repulsion and maybe poor Henry in David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977); it's not as successful as either of these films by the way. Although impressive, this functions more as a mood piece than a structured drama. But it's Franciosi's film; she's a slight but increasingly terrifying - and sympathetic - presence, evoking that of Niamh Algar in Prano Bailey-Bond's 2021 movie Censor. But the whole thing feels like a number of loosely connected set pieces, and the fairy tale elements feel muddled.
