"Out of Darkness" - Review

The year is 43,000 BC. A disparate group of humans stumble into the unfamiliar shore of a new world seeking shelter, food and a new beginning for their story. Adem (Chuku Modu) is the brutal hunter leading them. His mate Ave (Iola Evans) carries life within her. His brother Geirr (Kit Young) carries the spear to protect them. His son Heron (Luna Mwezi) is their hope for a new beginning. Old Storyteller Odal (Arno Luening) is the keeper of wisdom. And the new, recently rescued stray Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) will be whatever their leader deems her to be, regardless of her wishes. These disperate, hungry people find themselves on the precipice of a new age, with something in the woods stalking them, blending into their nightmares, and bringing their nightmares to a horrifying reality which they must band together to face if they are to survive...

A startlingly bleak, stripped back and refreshing debut from Andre Cumming and screenwriter Ruth Greenberg, taking things back to basics.
The film is, at first, a minimalistic tale of survival: hunting for food, keeping an eye on one's children, escaping the cold, and chafing under the brutal but perhaps necessary rule of the leader. It's done with sweeping, cold, vast shots of the skyline which illustrate just how alone they are here; and the entire film is spoken in an artificial language, which is a really, really cool touch. The whole thing evokes those brutal, stark survival films we've been missing all these years, and its attention to details and superstition lay the bedrock for an increasingly dread-fuelled atmosphere. But Cumming and Greenberg don't neglect character either, weaving a complex dynamic in the tribe with simple choices from the actors and screenplay: Adem's rule, Geirr's idealism, Beyah's search for her place here, it's good writing. Safia Oakley-Green is the real standout here.
Then when the supernatural comes in, the monster beyond the treelines and the haunting, bloody horrors it brings, and the film keeps up the pace, though wobbles a little bit, before sticking the landing: becoming a movie about violence and its cycles, and the primal, deep rooted horrors of the unknown...
It stays brutal, stark and on message, and ends on a dark, grim, but still somewhat hopeful note.
I highly recommend it.