Coming Home in the Dark (2021)

   

Executive Produced & Directed by: James Ashcroft

Written by: Eli Kent & James Ashcroft

Story by:
Owen Marshall

Starring:

Erik Thomson .... Hoaggie
Daniel Gillies .... Mandrake
Miriama McDowell .... Jill
Matthias Luafutu .... Tubs


Release Dates:
Sundance Film Festival: January 30, 2021; Imagine Film Festival: April 15, 2021 (Netherlands); Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival: July 3, 2021; Melbourne International Film Festival: August 6, 2021; FrightFest London: September 2, 2021; Fantasy Filmfest: October 17, 2021 (Germany); Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival: November 4, 2021; Terror Molins Film Festival: November 11, 2021; Isla Calavera Film Festival: November 21, 2021

 

 

Rating:

 

A schoolteacher Hoaggie (Erik Thomson) and his wife are kidnapped Jill (Miriama McDowell) and are taken on a long nightmarish road trip by two maniacs as this husband has a deep dark secret of his own.

 

As the story goes spotting a family taking a boring road trip and then having a picnic in which they spot two psychopaths Mandrake and Tubs which looked intimidating and psychological on what they do as well as the moments being very intense and disturbing on what these two freaks do to the parents' children as this is shocking and fast.
Then they are kidnapped by these goons as it becomes terribly bland by what goes on wondering if the horror will outcome all of this but then they make a stop at the gas station in which there's situation on these two trying to find a way on escaping which makes you cringe and having a feeling that they won't succeed.
Hoaggie is forced to announce his deep and dark secret while being pitted against these two men which wasn't a pretty site to watch at all and I must admit that these moments was strongly done in.
Jill tries to escape running away but is caught by Tubs and she jumps off a bridge into a river but yet we don't know as to what happened to her which is a case of bad writing but we suspect that she is dead.
Hoaggie manages to escape with something that he planned would work while at the gas station and there's great night shots on him running away in some deep dark woods keeping you in suspense wondering if he will succeed. He spots teenagers recklessly driving and tries to convince them to take him with them for help but is pitted with Mandrake telling them that this person is the bad one as I kept a close eye wondering in which they will believe and boy things look deadly when they make a decision.
During the near ending of the story things looked violent with Hoaggie struggling again Mandrake and this looked great and vengeful to what we see here as it's packed with great intensity as well as watching carefully wondering if Hoaggie will succeed with this situation or not.
Bottom line is that this is a total knock off to crime horror flicks like Last House on the Left but it was an absolute bore as well as barely a horror flick which made me wonder if I should've reviewed this piece. It was pointless and at times hard to understand it. It wasn't for me at all.

The acting was incredibly good which deserves good credit here especially with lead actor Erik Thomson (Hoaggie) in which he showed off a good cautious attitude especially when the onscreen maniacs are bothering him as well as showing off terrific intensive energy when the terror strikes him and reacting to being in pain along with a nice emotional attitude when he has a deep dark confession. Yes he studied this part marvellously and had the perfect looks and appeal to this character.
Daniel Gillies (Mandrake) was certainly intimidating in his part as a maniac in which he performs very slick as well with his speaking by sounding cold like. He was great when he shoots his gun by acting fast paced while doing all of this. He had everything to this role and I give him two thumbs up for his performance.
Miriama McDowell (Jill) as the other victim does a great job by acting scared as well as showing terrific emotionally sobbing when the terror hits her. She seemed to really do well with her fast paced energy by trying to struggle from everything and showed nice timing within all of this.
Matthias Luafutu (Tubs) played the other maniac as he has a quiet disturbing type of behavior which he did it with good style as well as acting believeably powerful when acting violent which he did this nicely at full force. You could tell that he was really into his part and had the right tough guy looks and appeal.

John Gibson composed this piece as he has netal screeching sounds and other dark sounds which isn't too badly done for the creepy moments. There's the odd classical composing which isn't anything special.