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Out of Darkness

2022

Andrew Cumming

Chuku Modu, Iola Evans, Kit Young, Safia Oakley-Green ...

4.8

185

Horror In the Old Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical, being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged.

	Media	Author	Review
		Damon Wise Deadline	"It has a lot to say about man’s slow-moving and ongoing evolution, reflecting all the myriad divisions in today’s world, from Brexit to Biden’s America"
		Nikki Baughan Screendaily	"While the film may not fully cash in on that premise until its ferocious final 20 minutes, Cumming has nevertheless made an intelligent and effective homegrown horror"
		Meagan Navarro Bloody Disgusting	"The handsomely shot and stunning craft on display makes for an impressive debut by Cummings. The high concept ultimately falls apart by the final bow, and some might feel short-changed by the premise. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"It’s an impressively credible and gnarly journey back in time (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Manuela Lazic Cineuropa	"Andrew Cumming’s debut feature makes a genre film out of our species’ early history and imbues it with a sombre take on human nature"
		Ross McIndoe Slant	"It’s a disappointing place to arrive at after such a thrilling journey through the Highlands, though Oakley-Green’s scrappy, committed performance helps to carry the film through this clumsy last leg (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Michael Atkinson LA Weekly	"The movie is not ultimately the horror film it's being marketed as, it's more like a cave-dwelling slasher film, with a late-in-the-game swivel that doesn't quite dovetail with the shredded bodies"
		Dennis Harvey Variety	"A lean, mean adventure story on the cusp of horror that firsttime feature director Andrew Cumming imbues with tension and handsome visual atmospherics"
		Alex Harrison Screen Rant	"[It] offers enough in its current form to be worth your time, and suggests a promising future in horror movies for its director (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Phil de Semlyen Time Out	"It’s anthropology, not violence, that provides the sting in the tail – a thought-provoking coda to an often pulse-pounding survival horror (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Joshua Rothkopf Los Angeles Times	"[It] is effective enough — and gory — to function as a thriller of the loud-noise-springing variety. But a last-act grasp at profundity in Ruth Greenberg’s screenplay feels unearned"
		Brian Farvour The Playlist	"While 'Out of Darkness' is by no means bad, it’s far from the iconic status Cumming presumably hoped to achieve"
		Cath Clarke The Guardian	"The recreation of stone age life feels unexpectedly convincing (...) It left me in awe of the survival instinct (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle	"The inevitable lessons learned in this moss-covered and frost-blasted wilderness still have modern resonances –about fear, bigotry, superstition, survival (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Josh Bell CBR	"A visceral, unrelenting story about early humans facing an unseen enemy as they search for a new home in a harsh landscape"
		Matthew Jackson Paste Magazine	"Both a gripping throwback and a shockingly timeless exploration of human terror"
		James Verniere Boston Herald	"The Scottish Highlands are the real star of this tale of Stone Age survival"
		Ethan Vestby The Film Stage	"One can excuse the overwhelming greyness as just the atmosphere they’re working with, but the film having a self-seriousness that makes one yearn for the days of Neil Marshall is not a good sign"
		Adam Graham Detroit News	"'Out of Darkness' is best when it's ambiguous, and it loses some of its zip as answers begin to come into focus. But in terms of look and feel, it has plenty going for it"
		Jeannette Catsoulis The New York Times	"The setting may be prehistoric, but there's nothing primitive about the filmmaking, which molds mostly natural light and an unusually rich soundscape into something both elemental and hostile"
		Chase Hutchinson Collider	"When what was quite scattered is brought into painfully sinister focus, 'Out of Darkness' finds the light"

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