- Starring
- Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell
- Writers
- James Ashcroft, Eli Kent
- Director
- James Ashcroft
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 93 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Again, the simplest of premises are often the most effective and with Coming Home in the Dark, that fact could not be more true. Part roadtrip movie and sort of home invasion thriller, this masterclass in tension over the course of its short running time. Though the film could be shorter as a means to cut down on the repetitive nature of the film’s premise. it was merely a minor issue as the film’s atmosphere makes it hard to not look away, especially one performance in particular. The story follows the brutal aftermath of a New Zealand family’s trip at the hands of a pair of menacing and unpredictable drifters named Mandrake (Gillies) and Tubs (Matthias Luafutu) where little did he know, a school teacher named Hoaggie (Thomson) is forced to confront the sins of his past. Part of that tension came from these drifters whose seemingly random plan maybe wasn’t so random after all. Establishing their brutal nature early on set the tone while their unpredictability just added to that tension.
The majority of Coming Home in the Dark may be spent in a car supposedly driving to the titular home but what made the film so gripping as viewers will surely be kept on the edge of their seats not knowing what happens next and learning the truth behind the actions of these drifters all while waiting to see if Hoaggie and his wife Jill (McDowell) will survive. Over the course of the film, it became increasingly clear how far they would go in pursuit of some perceived justice from an incident related to Hoaggie’s past which only ratcheted up the stakes and made things downright scary at times to watch, unrelenting all the way to the end. What makes it all work was a great script and a sensational performance from Gillies as Mandrake, grounding an unhinged and scary character with a level of humanity.
Overall, Coming Home in the Dark is a simple yet effective thriller that genre fans should check out.
still courtesy of Sundance
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
