‘There is a difference between doing something and letting something happen…’
Horror is such a broad church that the word has become virtually meaningless. What connects Night of the Living Dead, The Shining and Killer Clowns from Outer Space? Very little. And yet, they are all ‘horror’ films. Coming Home in the Dark is certainly a horror film, but it couldn’t be further removed from the campy, ostentatious fare of something like Scream or A Nightmare on Elm Street. No. This is something closer to Eden Lake. And anyone who endured that movie knows that it is an area not to be trifled with…
Teacher and family man Hoaggie (Erik Thomson) is on a road trip with his wife Jill (Miriama McDowell) and their two kids Maika (Billy Paratene) and Jordan (Frankie Paratene). Their charming family picnic in the rolling hills of New Zealand is dramatically cut short by the arrival of Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) and Tubs (Matthias Luafutu). That’s all you need to know. Don’t watch the trailer. Approach this thing blind.
Like some twisted combination of Dead Man’s Shoes, The Strangers and Chopper, Coming Home in the Dark is a sub 90-minute thrill ride that questions the nature of family, of systematic abuse, of the concept of an eye for an eye, heck, of what it means to feel guilt and regret. It does most of this simply through lingering close-ups and repetitive shots of the open road. Writer-director James Ashcroft (who shares a co-writing credit with Eli Kent) allows his deeply talented cast to do much of the heavy lifting. Thomson’s Hoaggie is ambiguous and layered, but it is Gillies show-stopping performance as a ruthless and tortured killer that really elevates Coming Home in the Dark from a lost-in-the-wilderness/home invasion hybrid to something much darker and more interesting.
The jet-black subject matter and more violent moments won’t be for everyone, but this obsidian fable packs a real punch. Quietly one of the best horror films of 2021.