You aren’t immediately aware that there are humans in the untamed land of “Out of Darkness,” set 45,000 years ago in the Stone Age where a fire gradually reveals a group of six trying to find a place to settle and the flame providing light in a sea of black reminds that they are firmly at nature’s mercy. There is so much about the world that is still unknown that the rumors that there are demons in the forest hold as much weight as the more obvious threat of getting lost in the woods without a clear way back and among the traveling party led by Adem (Chuku Modu), the kind of strapping young man who is typically inclined to take charge, there are doubts about the best way forward when there’s no rationale for his certainty except for self-confidence.
A hint of “Alien” can be detected in Andrew Cumming’s crafty survival thriller, as if instead of playing out in the future-facing expanse of outer space, “Out of Darkness” simply reaches deep into the equally uncolonized past for a scenario just as mysterious and potentially treacherous for its sextet and as they try to find a place with warm caves and plentiful animals to hunt for sustenance, the film holds the timeless appeal of realizing that they are the hunted. Some truly inspired camerawork from cinematographer Ben Fordesman, occasionally giving a feeling of destabilization when untethered from a traditional shooting axis and infusing power into the shadows with evocative lighting, helps create a sense of dread for Adem’s followers, but Ruth Greenberg’s script suggests they should be as fearful of one another as anything they can imagine out in nature. Well before they appear in actual peril, it is made clear that this group has been brought together by circumstance rather than affection for one another as Ave (Iola Evans), soon to give birth to Adem’s child, isn’t keen to tell a campfire story to his kid Heron (Luna Mwezi) that she did not give birth to.
Performed in a language invented for the film, the group may be able to communicate with each other, but they have about as much of an understanding as anyone watching on if the subtitles dropped out as Adem’s authority is challenged by the older Odal, who insists there are demons about as they start to find the desiccated corpses of woolly mammoths, and he isn’t beloved by Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green), a young woman he aims to mentor as a warrior but expects to serve him as a concubine. When crisis strikes, Adem loses control of both Heron, who disappears into the wilderness, and his followers as Beyah and his other protege Geirr (Kit Young) are asked to rise to the occasion before they’re ready and while the fraught group dynamics may feel a bit familiar, it is nonetheless unpredictable who will emerge as a leader as they attempt to find Heron.
In his debut feature, Cumming shows a real talent for world-building and creating suspense when the danger of uncharted territory can be felt at every turn and hazards such as a quicksand-like pit full of body parts are out of the ordinary even by the standards of the genre. At a tight 87 minutes, “Out of Darkness” may play more epic than its run time but feels as endearingly scrappy as characters struggling to survive at its center and whether in terms of a career or a world at large, it has the energizing feeling that it’s the start of something.
“Out of Darkness” will open on February 9th.