Out of Darkness (2024)

Score: 3.5 / 5

After several years in the festival circuit and international releases, Out of Darkness is finally available for US audiences! The Scottish production was filmed on location during the height of pandemic lockdowns and the experience of watching it forces remembrance of the isolated frisson many of us felt at that time. But this adventure thriller is far from 2024; in fact, it's set some 45,000 years in the past, what its creators suggest may be the first Paleolithic horror film. It's about as sparse as a film can be in terms of character, plot, and setting. Much like Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC (a personal guilty pleasure if ever there was one), this allows a sharper focus on atmosphere, action, and spectacle. What's not to enjoy?

The film starts with six early humans arriving on an unknown shoreline looking for a better life. Its leader Adem and his pregnant mate Ave (aptly named, no?), his younger brother Geirr and young son Heron, and two tagalongs in the form of a stray young woman called Beyah and an old man named Odal. Around a campfire, they listen to Odal's oral histories and lessons, much as we are gathering close to our lit screens to witness their own story. All their dialogue is in a language called Tola, invented by a linguist and archaeologist based on their research; it's a cool note, though perhaps unnecessary given the scope of the film as a whole.

Odal tries to scare Heron with a story about demons before Adem, a practical and pragmatic leader, emphatically declares that there are no demons. But as they approach the nearby mountains in search of shelter, a mysterious entity stalks them and snatches away Heron in the dead of night. As if the prehistoric terrain wasn't treacherous enough, now they must indeed contend with some malevolent force in the wastes around them. Adem takes it upon himself to rescue his son, charging into the darkness and leading the others in a mad frenzy before they become lost. When Adem returns badly wounded, they know their days are numbered unless they can identify and fend off their predator.

For a story that could have been taken a lot of different ways artistically and thematically, this one plays things simply. Its straightforward delivery, with apparently all practical effects and a strong sense of integrity regarding its characters, slyly cuts out any potential excesses. Hardly a moment is wasted, making its strictly action-oriented plot nearly devoid of emotional attachment on our part. Or on the parts of the characters, who are so determined to survive intact they'll turn on each other in a moment if they think it will help them survive. The icy cinematography and bleak landscapes captured therein cast a chilling pall over the proceedings that seeps out of the screen and under your skin. Even the layers of fur and leather worn by the characters -- so bulky they are sometimes indistinguishable, much less discernible by any perceived sexual characteristics -- don't seem to be insulating as much as simply protective from the wilderness.

Like many fictional stories of survivors in a strange place, this one features shifting alliances and attempts at individualism that don't usually end well; using each other as bargaining tools and scapegoats works much better when you actually know what or who your real enemy is. The actors thread these needles remarkably well, perhaps too well considering the threadbare screenplay to which they are clearly committed; their physicality alone could make the case that this film should probably have been devoid of dialogue altogether. Then again, there are some especially effective, chilling moments that worked faster (if not better) because of their dialogue, such as when Odal decides it is Beyah's menstrual cycle that is luring the demon to them. Even in moments like these, the characters feel somehow out of time, beyond the reach of much contemporary influence, which is a fabulous feat in our recently-post-Roe v Wade climate.

Its finale will starkly divide audiences, I expect, half of whom would prefer something akin to a Stone Age Blair Witch Project and the other half no doubt hoping for some kind of bleak epic a la Apocalypto or The Northman. It is, ultimately, neither of those things. I won't spoil the ending here except to say it's much sadder and more grounded in reality than anything I was expecting, a sort of parable about human violence and desperation for survival in the face of existentially threatening evolution. Regardless of your mileage in the finale and denouement, Out of Darkness casts an undeniably chilling spell on its audience if you allow yourself to get on its wavelength. And with this score, cinematography, and acting, it's hard not to relish the shadowy world beckoning to us beyond the campfire's glow.