OUT OF DARKNESS - Mark Reviews Movies

Out of Darkness, Bleecker Street

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 8, 2024

Set 45,000 years in the past, Out of Darkness follows a group of outcasts from a larger tribe of humans. They have crossed the sea, defying the advice of tribal elders and safety, in order to find some kind of paradise. It does not go well.

That's the basic premise of Ruth Greenberg's screenplay, which is far less interesting as a story than it is as a piece of speculative anthropology. The movie puts us into the ways, customs, and social norms of this small, isolated band of Stone Age-era humans, from the hierarchy of the group, to the thinking of legacy as a means of survival, and even to language. Someone, either the writer or some consultant, invented an entire language for these characters to speak throughout the movie, and that level of intricate detail can't be ignored. Everything about the production—the costumes, the natural lighting (made possible by cinematographer Ben Fordesman), the barren landscapes (provided by Scotland)—looks, sounds, and feels authentic.

Then, though, there is the story into which all of that effort has been put. It's initially a tale of survival, revolving around lots of walking and searching for food and debating the best courses of action and direction. Because the filmmakers have done their homework and shown the results on screen, it's easy to accept these characters and the stakes at hand. Unfortunately, it seems that's not enough drama, mystery, and conflict in the minds behind the movie.

It becomes apparent that something else is out there in the wilderness, as if being lost in an unknown land, encroaching starvation, and some internal disagreements within the group aren't suspenseful enough. Does this story need some kind of demonic creature, stalking the group in the shadows and picking them off one by one? It doesn't, but worse than that, Cumming uses that threat in the most obvious ways possible.

The group to soon be hunted in the story consists of the leader, named Adem (Chuku Modu), and his tiny clan of rebels and misfits. His younger brother Geirr (Kit Young) is less decisive than Adem, and the leader's mate Ave (Iola Evans) is pregnant with their second child. The first, a boy named Heron (Luna Mwezi), likes stories and is learning the ways of his father, imagining himself stabbing and killing prey or foe or both. Old Odal (Arno Lüning) serves as Adem's advisor, and he's becoming skeptical that the self-exiled upstart has a clue as to how ensure the group's survival.

The most important character, though, is Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green), a teenaged "stray" who tagged along with the band in the hope that she might become part of some family, instead of being dismissed or worse by the greater tribe. Adem definitely has plans for her, especially if Ave doesn't provide him with a second son. Just when the tensions among the group and the underlying cruelty of a life devoted exclusively to surviving begin to emerge here, the plot takes a sharp turn to the potentially supernatural. It's a clear letdown, even if the shift is hinted at right from the opening scene.

That's not only because of the inherent promise of what's established about and for these characters. It's also on account of the routine nature of the cat-and-mouse game and occasional showdowns that ensue. The clan members hear distant screeches across the plains, and soon enough, some unseen or shadowy figure nabs someone at the edge of the campfire light. In the morning, the remaining group sets out to find their missing member, and in a dense forest and a cave, Adem's tribe—or, at least, whoever remains after more death or snatching—finds themselves surrounded by more screeching, clumping and crunching noises approaching, and the uncertain outline of some creature that seems to be hunting them.

The movie establishes this pattern and, until the third act makes a huge leap in both logic and theme to make sense of and recontextualize the whole story, doesn't bother with much else. There are jump-scares, moments of the gory consequences of confronting the thing in the darkness (Someone's jaw is transformed into a gaping hole) or in-fighting, and plenty of scenes of characters actively putting themselves in danger for no rational reason (These characters, at least, can't be knocked for apparently never seeing a horror movie before, because of course they haven't, but that means their more dunderheaded decisions are inconsistent on a purely evolutionary level). Members of the group disappear or die one at a time, and it's all a matter of predictable formula, with no real suspense or scares as a consequence.

It's such a disappointing mode for the filmmakers to land upon, especially with material that clearly is the result of a lot of research and hard work to make this prehistoric world convincing. That does convince, at least, and quite well, but the rest of Out of Darkness doesn't.

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