Somehow, 84% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of74 reviews)
Runtime: At least it was only 87 minutes
Directed by: Andrew Cumming
Starring: A bunch of people I had never heard of before
From: This was from Bleecker Street
Allegedly, this was a horror film; I’d say it is more a survival thriller… although this was neither horrific nor thrilling. If it wasn’t for seeing one trailer for this (before I.S.S.) I’d have never heard of this British movie from a few years ago that was picked up by Bleecker Street for release due to how barren 2024 will be at the cineplex due to the strike. It was the premise that chiefly had me interested—that is despite the trailer making it look like Great Value A24. Actually, a trailer I saw in front of this was truly Great Value A24, but more on that at the end.
The premise is that 45,000 years ago, a small group of ethnically diverse characters (yeah, that is perhaps dubious, but that’s the least of my problems w/ this) are on a journey to find a better homestead; this is represented by Scotland, which apparently does a great job of representing a barren landscape. Someone or something is hunting them, and… that’s as complex as the narrative becomes. This on its own is not an issue; however, when Out of Darkness has a small cast and all but one character is a complete bellend (w/ the leader of the gang the biggest A-hole)… believe it or not I quickly lost interest in this nonsense.
Besides the fact that it’s a basic story filled w/ knobheads and the “color palate” was completely desaturated, the print itself was so dim, it was like I was back watching Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem! No, I’ve never reviewed either AvP picture—once I finally do, expect blistering takes from me. Those are just some of the many missteps in this movie; I know many think this is at least OK but I couldn’t disagree more. This has many of the modern filmmaking tropes that I think are tripe; this includes “OOT gruesome moments out of nowhere.” I’m glad many got more out of this than what my experience was.
They invented an entire language and it was subtitled; that and a decent score were interesting but as a whole this was a massive disappointment as the Stone Age setting is one that always has been underserved in the world of film and something creative could have been done. Instead, the setting mattered little and I was not surprised to hear that one Letterboxd mutual felt narcoleptic during their viewing.
The trailers were more interesting to me. It was mainly horror and my opinions were mixed. Sasquatch Sunset is a GIGANTIC “nope”; those that remember my review for Everything Everywhere All at Once know that absurdist “humor” makes me physically nauseous which is why most from that genre is avoided. It was my first time viewing the Madame Web trailer; of course it looks terrible yet judging by her “not giving an F” attitude during the press junket, Dakota Johnson believes it actually is terrible!
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