Await Further Instructions

What starts off as the usual miserable British family Christmas soon transforms into a a unique, off the wall British horror, where one dysfunctional family are quite literally ruled by the television.

The positives for me are the performances, and the originality of the story. In particular I loved David Bradley, he was literally monstrous, and Abigail Cruttenden was great as the poor wife on the edge. It would be so easy to dismiss this film, as it does go completely bonkers towards the end, but applied them for at least doing something different.

On the debit side, it did look a little cheap and amateur at times, it's not exactly what you'd call a slick production. If have liked to know a little more about the strange force.

Despite the harsh reviews, I'd recommend it, just don't take it too seriously. 7/10

*Not* for a dumbed down audience that thinks good sci fi means more lasers and space ships.

Awesome story about human nature, how suspicion can drastically change people.

Similar to an original Twilight Zone episode, where aliens secretly controlled the electricity in a neighbourhood and good friends quickly started turning on each other.

If your head still has synapses that have spark, you will enjoy this.

If not, for you there's another Disney sci fi loaded with pretty explosions and social agendas, churned out by a machine weekly.

This film immediately got my attention, it seemed to fall under a sub category that I love and I was gripped. Sadly it didn't deliver the way that I expected and that's a real shame.

You see Await Further Instructions tells the story of a family brought together for Christmas. When drama occurs two of them decide to leave at the crack of dawn but find themselves locked in. Every door and window is sealed by some kind of metal and now the television is giving them instructions! So what is going on? Terrorism? Quarantine? Or something more nefarious?

I liked this, I liked the family dynamic and how they each reacted. Some rationally, others counter productive. The movie also touches upon religion, how they badly "Reached" to deem what was taking place as relevant to their particular faith causing further irrational behavior and hysteria.

Starring GoT/Harry Potter/The Strain star David Bradley I was thoroughly hooked by the movie and fascinated to see where it would go next. Trouble is, where it goes isn't as entertaining.

A slow burner, the pace works and kept me engaged but as soon as certain revelations take place and questions get answered you realize just how badly the writer has dropped the ball. They took a really enjoyable movie with a great concept and tagged on the end a moronic, awful finale that looks terrible and simply isn't very good at all.

Personally based on everything we found out I'd like to see a sequel to this, but one where they give more thought to the ending.

The Good:

Solid concept

The Bad:

Dreadful finale

The one thing it is trying to say is fine, but cheese 'n' crackers the rest is bum gravy. The acting isn't wooden, more like cut outs from the back of cereal carton, who told Neerja Naik she could act? Jeezus, I felt my gums receding every time she appeared. One of those films where after 15 mins you'll question 'but how, but why don't they, but surely you'd do that' and finally 'but why am I still watching'? However for a new movie it didn't sell out to the crap that Amazon, the BBC and Netflix THINK is the way forward

I'm very torn on how I feel about this film, the quality really is all over the place. The acting is pretty consistently bad, the characters are boring and exaggerated, and the characters constantly make hilariously bad decisions.

That said, it does play with some interesting ideas and themes (even if it comes off as absurdly over the top and exaggerated at times). The ending will no doubt be divisive, but I personally found it intriguing.

I'd recommend watching, as long as you can overlook some of the hilariously poor dialogue and acting, as well as some logical inconsistencies and the grossly overused green lighting early in the film.

5/10, though I could see my opinion changing slightly as time goes on