Out of Darkness – A Gripping Prehistoric Survival Thriller

Out of Darkness is set in the Old Stone Age and follows a disparate gang of early humans who 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 envisioned or have ever seen before. The film delivers an intense, tightly-paced, brutal, and visceral prehistoric survival thriller that is sure to grip audiences from start to finish.

The film is a very sleek looking production featuring some excellent camerawork, transitions, and bleak but stunning cinematography. On top of that, it is also one of the rare examples of a modern day film that is actually lit well and despite its majority nighttime setting, it is still easy to see everything that’s going on. Andrew Cumming’s direction is extremely immersive, as he effectively creates a haunting atmosphere with some truly chilling and brutal imagery that is actually quite jarring at first. Every major set piece is suspenseful, while that tension effectively builds as the film goes on. Though this wouldn’t necessarily be classified as a full on mystery, there’s a good mystery behind what is hunting them, and Cumming smartly decides to keep the antagonist hidden for most of the film. Also, the film’s 87-minute running time is an absolute blessing, as it doesn’t waste a single second of that time.

Another interesting aspect about the film, for those who didn’t already know, the filmmakers chose to make up their own authentic language for the film, and thankfully it isn’t distracting because of how fluent its cast appear to speak it. It clearly couldn’t have been easy learning to speak an entirely new made up language along with all the physicality that their roles require, but they deserve a lot of credit for how convincing they make it. All of their performances are solid, without a weak link among them, but Oakley-Green is truly the standout and is excellent as the lead. Although the character work isn’t the highpoint of the film, Oakley-Green’s character arc as Beyah and her journey throughout is an undeniably compelling. Audiences will find themselves wanting to see her make it out alive, all because of her strong performance.

What ultimately holds the film back from being a new survival classic is the character work and third act. The character work here isn’t anything special and outside of the lead character, they are thin outside of their appearance and individual traits. Because of that, it makes it hard to connect with them on a deeper level and makes it even more difficult to care about their respective fates. It’s nearly impossible to talk about the problems of the third act without venturing into spoiler territory other than to say that it simply didn’t fully work. While this is definitely an ambitious direction to take this type of survival story, it could have been a lot more satisfying based on the build up over its first two acts. In spite of its issues, the third act is nevertheless entertaining enough though it undoubtedly could have been so much more.

In the end, for those who are into survival thrillers, Out of Darkness is absolutely one to seek out. Not only is it gripping and intense, it provides nearly everything one would want from a thriller and is led by a star making performance from Safia Oakley-Green. The third act might make or break it for some audiences, but the journey is worth regardless of the final destination. Audiences are best not to go into this one expecting a full on horror to avoid disappointment.

still courtesy of levelFilm

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Connor Carey

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