Out of Darkness works as a brutal slice of primitive survival horror, even if its ideas about violence and human nature feel a little well-worn.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 8, 2025

The wonder of discovery turns to unbridled fear in Andrew Cumming’s ferocious, blood-soaked horror film, Out of Darkness.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 13, 2024

By the time we learn the monsters were us all along, it's far too late for the lesson to have much of an impact.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 27, 2024

The beauty of its lushes Scottish landscape works to lure in its audience, only to flip a switch and use that same setting as the source for terror.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 25, 2024

"All of it's pieces are simple, just like the basic concept is simple, but they're all executed in really complex ways."

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 8, 2024

It鈥檚 tempting to label prehistoric stories like Out of Darkness gimmickry, but Cumming mostly cuts through the wow-that鈥檚-authentic components of his film 鈥� and by that token, the temptation to find flaws in them 鈥� with big ideas.

| Jun 25, 2024

Andrew Cumming’s film is about the enduring poison of patriarchy, as well as the human tendency to fear—and destroy—what we don’t know or understand.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 5, 2024

Horror often has a problem with characters鈥� annoyingly faulty decision-making; here, their hierarchy of needs, with food and shelter to the fore, makes self-endangering choices more than believable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2024

It’s as much about the horrors that dwell in the dark, uncharted regions of the world as is about the way we react to fear and paranoia.

| Mar 27, 2024

Out of Darkness is a fascinating update on the themes of survival in an unforgiving world.

| Mar 26, 2024

The story is not about the monsters outside, but the demons within, and how people lose their community and themselves when they are afraid. It is about the human condition, and how easy it is to rationalize away others’ humanity under pressure.

| Mar 24, 2024

This stone age drama is Predator meets Clan of the Cave Bear. But its staging and thrill levels don't quite meet the standards of the impeccable atmosphere

| Original Score: 3 | Mar 21, 2024

Fitting for a year in which global politics is pulling us kicking and screaming into the past, the first great movie of 2024 is a Paleolithic-era thriller about a tribal fear of “the other” and grotesque hypermasculinity.

| Original Score: A+ | Mar 8, 2024

The difference here is in the attention to paleolithic detail and the emotional sincerity that the film-makers, including the debut director Andrew Cumming and the debut feature writer Ruth Greenberg, bring to the material.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2024

Proof that even the most basic cinematic tools can be used to make fire.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 28, 2024

Atmospheric and chilling, Out Of Darkness doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but adds some thoughtful twists to a well-worn genre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 26, 2024

Out of Darkness is an unconventional survival thriller, but one that has much to offer between its conception of a Paleolithic world, the compelling performances, and the unique craftwork.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 26, 2024

Whatever the opposite of sugar and spice and everything is, that’s exactly what the creature at the center of this cro-magnon monster movie is made of.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 23, 2024

It鈥檚 a robust big screen experience at a time when too many films are only too happy to satisfy the small screen expectations of the streaming services.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 23, 2024

The well-made chiller “Out of Darkness” seem to imply that man’s basic nature hasn’t changed much in 45,000 years.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 23, 2024