Films for Breakfast

Fear of the unknown is such a primal feeling that all of the best horror films tap into in one way or another, and Andrew Cumming’s Out of Darkness is no exception. The film opens in pure darkness as we slowly, gradually get a hint of light and see that there are humans within the shot. For the rest of the runtime, the film takes pride in maintaining this sense of mystery and dread. Set 45,000 years in the past, the film follows a group of homosapiens in search of a new home and prosperous future. The groups’ leader Adem (Chuku Modu) is hellbent to not only safely navigate these unknown terrains safely with his pack, but also keep their hopes alive for a better tomorrow. However, whatever hope lied within the group is quickly drained and turned into terror as an unknown force begins to target them during the night.

While Andrew Cumming has done quite a bit of directing within short films and television, the fact that Out of Darkness is a feature-length directorial debut is pretty astounding to me. Purely on terms of craft and technical presentation, the film is so neatly and confidently made. Each moment of suspense and horror has both a perfect amount of build-up for each situation the characters find themselves in, as well as enough respect for the audience to not succumb to cheap jump scares. It truly feels like every scare and moment of tension is earned fair and square by how good of a job Cumming does behind the camera. A lot of this also can be attributed to Ben Fordesman as the cinematographer as he captures some truly striking and horrifying shots, and Adam Janota Bzowski’s hypnotic and eery score that does a lot of heavy lifting during the tense sequences.

Another big positive about the film are the performances at hand. Considering the film is largely subtitled and features the characters in peril and unable to properly communicate for a large portion of the running time, the actors do a pretty incredible job at not only exhibiting the dread in a meaningful and believable way but also exhibiting a sense of chemistry with one another. Whether or not they care for the other, or have a strained relationship with them – you fully feel and buy into every relationship here. The most impressive performance here is Safia Oakley-Green as Beyah, a “stray” to the group who becomes more important to the plot as the film progresses. She nearly steals the show every moment she’s on-screen from the might of her performance. Truly a force of nature.

The worst thing you could say about Out of Darkness also goes hand-in-hand with one of its best elements, which is that it is incredibly short and to-the-point. On the one hand, it’s really nice to see a film that is restrained and knows exactly where to begin and end. It truly doesn’t feel like the film wastes any time and feels all the leaner and better for it. However, it does feel as if this limited running time places a ceiling on how good the film can be. There are some interesting themes at bay about masculinity, femininity, and our inherent lack of humanity in moments in peril. But given the running time, the film does feel like it only has so much time to actually explore these themes in any sort of meaningful way, making it feel like it falls a bit short of its full potential.

However, as it stands, Out of Darkness is an incredibly solid debut that serves as an undeniably exciting and gnarly thriller despite a somewhat limited screenplay and undercooked themes. There are just too many greatly executed sequences that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat or squirming due to the amount of tension I was feeling that I can’t do anything but recommend watching it in the darkest, most remote setting you possibly can.

3.5/5