[Review] 'Out of Darkness' Presents a Stone Age Thriller Heavy on Primal Cruelty

​In his debut feature, Out of Darkness, director Andrew Cumming transports audiences back to a time of primal brutality, when the world was unknown and to stray from the light of the campfire could mean certain death. Cold, merciless and unflinching, the filmmaker presents an ambitious though stumbling survival thriller that doesn’t offer much in the way of tension, but manages to land a heavy blow with its theme of human cruelty that feels all too relevant to the time we’re living in.
 
Set 45,000 years ago, Adem (Chuku Modu) and his clan of early humans travel to a new land in search of a place rich with warmth and prey to hunt. Instead, they find themselves in a barren wasteland where the soil yields nothing and wildlife is anything but teeming. Clan “stray”, Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) hopes to prove herself as useful, facing possible banishment—or worse—if she doesn’t. That opportunity comes in an unforeseen guise when the group find themselves hunted by something in the darkness that’s as hungry as they are.
 
Writer Ruth Greenberg pens a Stone Age reflection on humanity with a familiar setup that might remind some of Dan Trachtenberg’s hit Predator prequel, Prey…at least at first. Like that film’s Amber Midthunder, Oakley-Green plays a woman intent on proving her worth to male hunters who see little value in her. A newcomer to the tribe, there’s an understanding beneath the surface that if Beyah does not provide in some way, then she has no place with them. As Adem reminds her after she gets her first period, “you’re for whatever I need”. Sigh, some things never change. Greenberg’s script paints a frustrating picture of a cruel world that’s even crueler for women, enhanced by the misty gray color palette of the picture and Adam Janota Bzowski’s sinister score full of tribal drum beats and wailing that almost sounds like a monster itself.

Out of Darkness gets us rooting for Beyah early on, and for a while, her point of view in this savage era is enough to keep it feeling fresh. But once things get moving, Cumming’s film falls into a trap of by the numbers storytelling and plot structure that any seasoned horror fan will be able to predict long before the outcome. After the first of the tribe is attacked, this plodding film becomes your standard tale of something hunting a group and taking them one by one, all while they do little but argue and run. Too often, the characters come off as passive, reacting rather than being proactive, leaving the viewer without much engagement in-between kills, themselves underwhelming as most are done off-screen. Though technically sound on every level and handsomely shot by Ben Fordesman, there simply isn’t a whole lot of tension built into Out of Darkness, a result of too few surprises plus a narrative that audiences are all too familiar with.
 
The same can be said for the theme of the picture, which boils down to “who is the real monster”? Is it the thing hunting our main characters, or is it human beings ourselves? While that’s not exactly a new take, it comes at a time where such a message hits with skull-crushing power. Look around, and it’s easy to feel like our very humanity is dwindling right before our eyes. Between rising hate, wars, genocide, the way we treat each other online, it feels like we’ve forgotten how to do the simplest of things, which is to just see others as the human beings they are. Greenberg and Cumming take these anxieties and mix them into a story that has trouble keeping things exciting, but has a finish that resonates long after it ends. Through an occasional bit of gruesome violence and infuriating sequences in which the characters doom themselves over an inability to see people as just that, Out of Darkness cuts deep into the fabric of our time with an urgent plea begging for the audience to restore empathy in our society. Easier said than done.  
 
Despite a familiar plot and struggle in building effective tension or scares, Out of Darkness nevertheless proves an encouraging debut for Cumming with a strong finale that lands a memorable blow. Cumming’s impressive direction and a fierce performance by Oakley-Green carry the film enough to make it a solid if not disappointing watch. More important than anything, though, it’s a reminder that darkness exists everywhere in the world. But to get through it, we have to work together, or risk letting the terror of perceived horrors consume us.

Out of Darkness arrives in theaters on February 9th from Bleecker Street. 

By Matt Konopka