Out of Darkness transports viewers 45,000 years back in time to follow a small tribe struggling to survive the harsh elements and unseen dangers of the prehistoric world. This lean thriller drops us into the rough-and-tumble lives of early humans just trying to find their next meal and safe place to sleep. We get to know this makeshift family through intimate fireside conversations filled with quips and simmering resentments straight out of an ancient episode of Survivor.
The group’s gruff leader, Adem, lives by the rule “we light a fire or we die in the dark,” but that light attracts deadly interest from the surrounding wilderness. When members start disappearing and tensions flare, the tribe must band together or become divided prey. With its remote Scottish setting and creatures lurking just out of sight, Out of Darkness captures the alien nature of Paleolithic existence and the primal fear of the dark.
Viewers are plunged into a brutal battle for survival at a time when the concept of “humanity” itself was still evolving. So leave your comfy couch behind and join this prehistoric tribe as they confront the great unknown in a harsh but hauntingly beautiful ancient world. Just don’t stray far from the firelight.
A Primal Landscape
Cinematographer Ben Fordesman deserves MVP honors for immersing us so fully in the Stone Age struggle. Shooting on location in the Scottish Highlands, he captures both the raw natural beauty and merciless danger of this primal landscape. As the tribe traverses sweeping vistas of craggy hills and fog-shrouded forests, the land itself becomes a character – beautiful yet indifferent to their plight. The remote setting feels authentically ancient and lends an air of harsh reality to the tribe’s daily battle for survival.
When darkness falls, Fordesman wields light and shadow to ratchet up the tension. The velvety black nights are perforated only by the tribe’s flickering campfire, leaving the surrounding wilderness shrouded in obscurity. The firelight casts an intimate glow onto earnest faces, but also forms a barrier beyond which anything could lurk just out of sight. Sudden camera shakes and partial creature glimpses leave our imaginations to fill in the lurid details. Thunder cracks and strange cries echo across the mountains, heightening the primal sense of dread. Through artful cinematography, the land keeps us as on-edge as the anxious tribe.
The excellent production design also deserves applause for fully realizing this prehistoric world without a whiff of cheesiness. From the minimal stone and wood shelters to the detailed hide clothing, all visual elements have an authentic texture that grounds us in the Stone Age milieu. This freaky adventure may reach back into the furthest depths of human history, but Out of Darkness pulls it off with convincing realism.
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A Tribe Tested
At Out of Darkness’ core lies an intimate character study behind the horror trappings. Around the campfire, we’re introduced to our core tribe members, each occupying distinct roles within the clan’s hierarchy. Stoic leader Adem (Chuku Modu) rules with an iron will, prizing the safety of his partner Ave (Iola Evans) and their young son Heron (Luna Mwezi). Though harsh, Adem’s strength has kept the group alive. His younger brother Geirr (Kit Young) fills a deputy role but lacks decisive leadership skills. Meanwhile, stray orphan Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) lives on the fringes as an outsider of questionable loyalty. And elder Odal (Arno Lüning) has lost faith, providing gloomy warnings rather than wisdom.
This hierarchy structures daily life but soon faces external threats. Once the creature begins picking off tribe members under cover of darkness, nerves fray and bonds break. Adem grows desperate to protect his family, while Geirr crumbles under pressure. Beyah seizes an opportunity to prove her worth, developing a grit that surprises the men. And Odal’s Kuhn warnings expose him as a liability. Roles realign as true natures emerge.
The greatest threat comes not from monster claws but shifting interpersonal dynamics. Simmering resentments boil over and alliances crumble, leaving characters isolated when unity matters most. Here Out of Darkness reveals humanity’s dark instincts even in our primitive beginnings. From leadership challenges to gender barriers, the timeless struggles faced transcend bloody creature attacks to reveal relatable personal drama.
By testing its central tribe with external monster attacks and internal divisions, Out of Darkness crafts surprisingly resonant character arcs. Watching roles reverse and relationships evolve proves more gripping than the mystery creature, offering timeless insight into human nature under extreme duress.
Keeping the Monster Mysterious
As an atmospheric creature feature, Out of Darkness lives or dies by its unseen menace. For much of the runtime, our fanged fiend remains an ominous off-screen presence marked only by unnatural sounds echoing across the darkness. Growls, shrieks and snapping twigs build nerve-fraying tension without revealing the source. We scrutinize every shifting shadow, making the imagination the scariest special effect.
This expertly minimalist horror aesthetic allows the stellar sound design to take point. Rustling leaves, distant wails, and thunder cracks prickle the hair on the back of our necks. When the monster claims a victim, gory foley carnage depicts the vicious assault while keeping the beast out of sight. This restraint forces us to conjure our own worst fears.
Regrettably the creature reveal in the final act exposes more than fangs and claws – it unravels the mystery. Finally unveiling the gangly fiend feels more deflating than terrifying after so much clever build-up. turns out to be just another guy in a rubber suit. The flesh-and-blood reality underwhelms compared to the vivid savage beast we had imagined. Sometimes the dark spaces of the mind harbor far greater terrors than digital effects can conjure. Out of Darkness succeeds mightily in sending shivers up our spine…right up until it steps into the light.
A Heavy-Handed Humanity Metaphor
Behind the prehistoric survival thrills, Out of Darkness takes some ambitious stabs at symbolism that don’t quite land. There are intriguing seeds of metaphorical meaning in the way darkness and light function, how the tribe fragments when unity matters most, and notions of humanity battling its own savage instincts. But rather than let those ideas breathe, the film unfortunately opts to bash us over the head with blunt Messaging in the final act.
Spoiler Alert: The climactic reveal exposes the creature not as a literal beast but a tribesman in monster garb. This painfully literal attempt at commentary suggests the true threat to early humanity comes from within – our own violent human nature the real “creature” plaguing progress. This on-the-nose metaphor lacks subtlety, implying cave people were too unevolved to grasp such high-minded societal insights. And the garish monster costume proves an ineffective vehicle for such philosophical themes.
Rather than enrich the film, these Grand Statements about the human condition feel jarringly imposed by a heavy-handed modern perspective. Out of Darkness squanders its novel worldbuilding to spoon-feed simple lessons about darkness in the human soul. A lighter touch could have organically cultivated compelling connections between primal survival fears and timeless human flaws. Sometimes implications speak louder than words.
Signing Off from the Stone Age
From start to finish, Out of Darkness sinks us into a fully realized window to prehistoric life, from the stripped-down shelters to Infighting around the fire. Director Andrew Cummings deserves huge credit for ambitiously transporting viewers back 45,000 years with minimal whiffs of cheese. The remote Scottish vistas prove both stunningly beautiful and harshly inhospitable, heightening the battle for survival. Cinematography and production design thoroughly sell the concept while the script grounds interactions in understandable human motivations, even if the characters feel a tad too modern in dialogue.
Where the atmospheric world-building succeeds smashingly, the actual creature horror proves more of a mixed beast. Cleverly keeping the monster unseen for most of the runtime allows our imaginations to summon the ultimate savage beast. But the eventual reveal exposes more than fangs and claws – it unravels the mystery we had filled with our deepest fears. And the late injection of blunt Messaging about human nature falls flat coming from literal cave people.
In the end, Out of Darkness should be applauded for daring to realize a fully immersive Stone Age thriller with evident care and passion. If only the creature itself proved as terrifying as the harsh yet hauntingly beautiful ancient world Cummings has conjured around it. Prehistoric Scotland emerges as the breakout star here, upstaging the rubber-suited monster. So while the story falls short of bone-chilling, consider this a glowing recommendation for the visually transportive setting alone. Just stay near the campfire and you’ll have a primevally good time.
The Review
Out of Darkness
Out of Darkness transports viewers back in time with an impressively immersive primordial world, but can't fully deliver on the creature feature thrills promised by its chilling atmosphere. The weak monster reveal and blunt messaging ultimately undermine the film's stronger elements of tone, setting and character drama.
PROS
- Immersive cinematography and production design transport viewers back to the Stone Age
- Creature kept unseen to allow imaginations to fill in details, building suspense
- Explores thought-provoking human themes about group dynamics under extreme stress
CONS
- The eventual monster reveal underwhelms
- Heavy-handed messaging beats viewers over the head
- Characters and dialogue feel too modern for the setting
