Coming Home in the Dark

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Coming Home in the Dark
Coming Home in the Dark 2021 poster.jpg
Poster
Directed byJames Ashcroft
Written by
Produced by
  • Mike Minogue
  • Catherine Fitzgerald
  • Desray Armstrong
Starring
CinematographyMatt Henley
Edited byAnnie Collins
Production
companies
Light in the Dark Productions
MPI Media Group
Release date
  • January 31, 2021 (2021-01-31) (Sundance)
[1]
Running time
93 minutes
CountryNew Zealand
LanguageEnglish

Coming Home in the Dark is a 2021 New Zealand psychological horror-thriller film based on an award-winning 1995 short-story of the same name by Owen Marshall. Directed by James Ashcroft and written by Eli Kent with James Ashcroft, the film stars Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell and Matthias Luafutu.[2]

The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021.[1]

Plot[]

A school teacher, Alan 'Hoaggie' Hoaganraad, is on a road trip with his wife Jill and her two teenage sons, Maika and Jordan. While they enjoy a hike, Maika notices two men in the distance watching them before departing. While the family picnics by the road, they are interrupted by the two violent drifters, Mandrake and Tubs. The pair robs them at gunpoint and forces them to lie down, but before they leave, Mandrake overhears Maika call Alan 'Hoaggie.' Without explaining why, Mandrake murders Maika and Jordan and abducts the parents after night falls, breaking Alan's arm and knocking Jill unconscious.

As Mandrake questions the pair, he reveals that he knows Alan is a teacher and was once an assistant teacher at a group home for troubled boys, one notorious for physical and sexual abuse. Alan guesses correctly that both were enrolled at the school, but he insists that he was completely unaware of the abuse; Mandrake does not believe him and implies that they are driving to the boy's home. While they stop at a gas station, Alan carves a message for help on the toilet seat in the bathroom and drives a screw into the tire of the van. However, he is unable to arouse the suspicion of the station attendant, who Mandrake brutally bludgeons with a fire extinguisher and then taunts him with the murder.

Jill attempts to escape, but is quickly caught and later forced to kneel underneath an overpass. Threatening to shoot her, Mandrake forces Alan to admit that he was aware of all of the abuse, but stopped and reported nothing out of cowardice. Alan relays a story of a young boy who tattooed a swastika on his arm; at roll call, an admin painfully and forcibly scrubbed it from his skin with a nylon brush, which traumatized the rest of the students. Mandrake remains expressionless, but he begins to tear up. Jill is shaken by this admittance, and later rebuffs Alan's attempts at contact. When it's clear that Mandrake will not let her go, she escapes from the moving vehicle and then chooses to jump into the nearby river rather than return to her abductors; her fate is left ambiguous.

Eventually, the screw Alan planted blows the tire out as they approach a small town. As the drifters stop to replace it, Alan manages to escape to a nearby parking lot, where he encounters a group of teenagers but fails to convince them of the danger until Mandrake arrives. Though the teenagers are about to flee with Alan in tow, Mandrake assures them that Alan is dangerous and they are free to leave if they abandon him. Though they comply, he murders all but one who manages to escape. Alan tries to convince Tubs that he is under Mandrake's control and doesn't need to live like this. Mandrake drives them to the group home and Tubs waits outside as the other men enter.

Walking through the now-abandoned building, Alan admits that he was not just a coward, but also privately believed that the abuse was justified because the boys were troublemakers. Mandrake tells him that if it wasn't him, it was some other boy. Mandrake shoots Alan in the chest and taunts him, but Alan hits him with a rock and bludgeons him. Mandrake survives, though wounded and disoriented, and tries and fails to kill Alan. Tubs finally arrives and kills Mandrake with the rifle, but leaves Alan, telling him that "I hate this place". Tubs goes to an undisclosed location and looks out at the rising sun.

Cast[]

The cast includes:[3]

Release[]

Coming Home in the Dark had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021 in the Midnight section.[4]

Reception[]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a "Certified Fresh" 92% rating from 62 reviews, an average rating of 7.0/10, with the critical consensus: "Smart, well-acted, and above all scary, Coming Home in the Dark finds first-time director James Ashcroft making his mark with a white-knuckle ride for horror fans."[5]

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Sundance - FPG". Sundance. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  2. ^ Stuff (December 17, 2020). "Kiwi film produced by Wellington Paranormal star to premiere at Sundance". i.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  3. ^ "Film and TV Projects Going Into Production - Coming Home in the Dark". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
  4. ^ Debruge, Peter (December 15, 2020). "Sundance Film Festival Lineup Features 38 First-Time Directors, Including Rebecca Hall and Robin Wright". Variety. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  5. ^ "Coming Home in the Dark (2021)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 11, 2021.

External links[]

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