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To tweak Hugh Grant’s best line in “Love Actually,” horror actually is all around.

Whether you’re riding into the new year on your high horse or calmly preparing to walk into the sea, 2025 is a turning point. There’s no genre that tells us who we are or what we’re made of like this one, and the past twelve months have offered audiences a slew of scary stories full of shocks and surprises that were mostly open to interpretation.

Not all of us found powerful metaphors for social change in popular titles, and plenty of terrifying efforts flew under the radar in the genre’s generally high-grossing landscape. There were enough abortion analogies released last spring to merit their own ranking And there’s a reason “MaXXXine” — the definitive film of Brat Girl Summer! — didn’t make many year-end lists. Fittingly, the Mia Goth-starring sequel is...

Richard E. Grant (“Saltburn”), Amir El-Masry (“In Camera”) and Felicity Jones (“The Brutalist)” have joined the cast of “100 Nights Of Hero,” the adaptation of the graphic novel feminist fairytale from director Julia Jackman, alongside the already announced Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe and Charli Xcx.

Project Infinity’s Grant S. Johnson (“May December”) has joined Helen Simmons, Christopher Fairbank (“Lady Macbeth”), Tom Stourton (“All My Friends Hate Me”), Jeff Mirza (“Juice”), Olivia D’lima (“The Killing Kind”), Kerena Jagpal (“3 Body Problem”), Markella Kavenagh (“Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”), Clare Perkins (“Medusa Deluxe”), Josh Cowdery (“Wrath of Man”) and Varada Sethu (“Doctor Who”).

“Until 100 Nights of Hero, I hadn’t seen a project since Euphoria that so taps into what feels like the next generation of filmmakers, talent, and material,” said Johnson. “While the film appears to be a period drama, it’s not, and is modern in its sensibilities.

Saltburn star Richard E. Grant, In Camera‘s Amir El-Masry and The Brutalist‘s Felicity Jones have joined Nicholas Galitzine, Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe and Charli Xcx in the ensemble cast of 100 Nights of Hero.

Principal photography in England has wrapped on Julia Jackman’s adaptation of the graphic novel feminist fairytale.

Set in an alternate world, ruled by the despotic Birdman, the film centers on a bet between two friends: Manfred wagers to Jerome he can seduce his wife, Cherry, in 100 nights. If he wins, he gets Jerome’s castle and all his riches, whilst Cherry will face execution. As Jerome leaves, Cherry finds herself trapped in a remote castle, torn between the beguiling charisma of her husband’s friend and her trust in her maid Hero, whose suspicions of Manfred grow daily.

Jackman — in her feature writing debut — adapted the screenplay from Isabel Greenberg’s beloved 2016 graphic...

Andrew Cumming’s Stone Age thriller Out Of Darkness walked away with three awards at last night’s (November 17) Bafta Scotland ceremony, that took place in Glasgow.

The film was garlanded in the feature film, actor film and actress film categories, going to Kit Young and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Safia Oakley-Green respectively.

Out Of Darkness follows a gang of early humans that suspect a malevolent being is hunting them down. The film shot in Northwest Highlands of Scotland and was released under the title The Origin by Signature Entertainment in February. Cumming was a Screen Star of Tomorrow in...

BritBox has announced that Shetland Season 9 will premiere on December 11, 2024. New episodes will air weekly until the finale on January 15. Previous seasons of Shetland are available to stream on BritBox.

The new season of the acclaimed murder-mystery drama sees Ashley Jensen and Alison O’Donnell reprise their roles as Detectives Ruth Calder and Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh.

A double missing persons case blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, as Calder and Tosh are drawn into a labyrinthine investigation. When Tosh’s friend, Annie Bett, goes missing she suspects something is seriously wrong.

Ruth Calder – now living in Shetland – has no time to recover from a life-threatening ordeal of her own, as together they set out in search of Annie and her young son, Noah. They discover accountant Annie is estranged from her husband, Ian, and has been staying with mussel farmer John Harris and his two sons, Patrick and Fergus.

Andrew Cumming’s Stone Age thriller Out Of Darkness leads the film nominations for the 2024 Bafta Scotland Awards, nominated in three categories including best feature film.

The film, which follows a gang of early humans who suspect a malevolent being is hunting them down, also received nominations for actor film for Kit Young, and actress film for Safia Oakley-Green.

Scroll down for the full list of nominees

Out Of Darkness premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2022, before a UK-Ireland release in February this year by Signature Entertainment under the title The Origin.

Cumming, writer Ruth Greenberg and Oakley-Green...

The premise of Scottish director Andrew Cumming’s Out of Darkness is fairly simple: a group of people trying to survive a monster in the wilderness. But here’s the exciting thing: the film is set in the Stone Age, 45,000 years in the past, to be exact. This adds value to the narrative, which is further enhanced by the breathtaking cinematography that relies a lot on the vast, open terrains of Scotland and a morbid color palette. Adam Janota Bzowski’s pulsating background score is a game changer. It is a technical marvel for sure, but the story falls short after a very promising start. The climatic twist is to blame here, and, in my opinion, it bogged down the film.

Spoilers Ahead

What Happens in the Film?

Out of Darkness begins with a story, told by the old to the young. As it happens, it’s their own story.

Much like life, there is little salvation to be found in the Stone Age horror film Out of Darkness when you face the terrors of the world alone. Even for those who may think they are safe by throwing others to the wolves rather than standing by their side, this will not save you from the looming darkness that comes for us all. Directed by Andrew Cumming in his feature debut from a script by Ruth Greenberg, it is a work that requires being coy about what this means as the last act crystallizes and elevates much of what came before to greater heights.

Sabine Wren recently made an appearance in Ahsoka (2023 -). Well, "appearance" doesn't do her role in Ahsoka justice because she's an important character that pops up in seven episodes. Star Wars fans reacted positively to her role in the Disney+ series, but Ahsoka isn't the first time Sabine has played a major role in a Star Wars series. Sabine was created for an animated series called Star Wars Rebels that ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2018.

Sabine is a Force-sensitive Mandalorian warrior with colorful armor and hair that seems to change every few episodes. Her vibrant color pallet, affinity for art, and mysterious background made her an instantly recognizable fan favorite that most Star Wars fans wanted to know more about. Some of the best Star Wars Rebels episodes revolved around Sabine Wren.

Out of Darkness Helped Sabine Come Out Of Her Shell Season 1, Episode 7

"Out of Darkness" aired on...

A visually beguiling piece of cinema which many viewers will be happy to add to their collections, this comes in a very basic Blu-ray package. There are trailers for Out Of Darkness and The End We Start From, but there are no special features. The menu system is clean and straightforward, offering scene selection and the option of English-language subtitles....

June will be a month of thrilling TV and awards shows on Paramount+. The month will open with the return of Taylor Sheridan’s prison drama “Mayor of Kingstown.” After Jeremy Renner’s near-fatal accident, the Oscar-nominated actor returns for Season 3 of the series on June 2. Throughout the month, entertainment fans will also be able to cheer on their favorites at the Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday, June 7, and the Tony Awards on Sunday, June 16.

Also during the month of June, Paramount+ will be home to a handful of documentaries, highlighted by “Let the Canary Sing” and “How Music Got Free”. The streamer will also play host to exciting sports action, like the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament and games from the [Nwsl] and WNBA.

Paramount+ has two subscription tiers; the ad-supported Paramount+ Essential costs $5.99 per month and Paramount+ With Showtime runs $11.99 monthly. In addition to being ad-free, the latter tier...

Paramount has announced the lineup of movies, TV shows, and live sports coming to the Paramount+ streaming service in June. The Paramount Plus June 2024 schedule includes the UEFA Champions League Final and new seasons of Mayor of Kingstown and Criminal Minds: Evolution.

Producers Eminem and LeBron James deliver a riveting story about the greatest musical pirate in history and the end of the industry in How Music Got Free, while our young fans join the Autobots and Decepticons on their continued adventures in Transformers: EarthSpark.

Finally, the anticipation mounts as the stars hit the red carpet at the 51st Daytime Emmy Awards and the 77th Tony Awards, streaming live on the service.

The UEFA Champions League experienced record viewership on Paramount+ in April, being the top acquisition driver of all content on the service for the month. The excitement will continue on June 1 when soccer fans around the country will...

While horror has always been subjective among viewers, most consider it to be the best of all. Of course, other genres, such as action and romance, are just as popular, but horror can blend into almost any genre while remaining the dominant factor, making it distinctive. In fact, horror symbolizes something that many people are terrified of in real life yet embrace in fiction.

As a result, there have been hundreds of phenomenal horror films over the years. With modern streaming services making it easier to see these films, we're witnessing a surge in new productions. In the past couple of months alone, several notable horror films have been released, including Out of Darkness, Imaginary, and Immaculate. With the upcoming month looking equally exciting and promising, it's reasonable that many would be excited. To that end, here is a list of every horror movie that will be released in April...

With Now Showing, your Halloweenies gather each month for a review on something new and something old in horror. This month, co-hosts Rachel Reeves, Dan Caffrey, and McKenzie Gerber shoot the shit about all kinds of spooky stuff, specifically Lisa Frankenstein, Out of Darkness, I Am Chanel, Rope, The Manitou, and A Stranger Is Watching.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, and The Evil Dead. This year? It’s Chucky!

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries, one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals, and even topical spinoffs like this past summer’s greatest adventure Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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Horror films have always piqued the interest of many movie enthusiasts with a variety of sub-genres to keep audiences entertained. Whether you're scared by claustrophobic terror or prefer jump scares, there's a horror film for everyone. While many films in the genre are purely fictional and far from reality, movies like The Conjuring claim to be based on true stories.

In February 2024, we saw films like Lisa Frankenstein, which evoked strong '80s vibes, and Out of Darkness, which took us back to the prehistoric world. Fortunately, March 2024 has some outstanding horror films, with plenty of movies to please horror lovers throughout the month. Here is a list of every horror movie coming out in March 2024.

T-Blockers Watch It in Theaters on Mar. 5

T-Blockers is an upcoming and third feature film by the Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay. This queer horror film, co-written by Benjamin Pahl Robinson, is set to be released on Mar.

UK production and distribution outfit Signature Entertainment has furthered its commitment to theatrical distribution with the hire of theatrical exec Luke Natoli.

Natoli joins, with an immediate start, in the position of theatrical film account manager.

He comes from Elysian Film Group where he worked as a theatrical sales consultant, including on the UK and Ireland release for the Bafta-winning The Boy And The Heron, Studio Ghibli’s highest -grossing film in the UK and Ireland, which has taken over £5m at the UK-Ireland box office (as of February 26).

Prior to Elysian, Natoli worked at eOne, and also in programming...

Independent titles lead the openers at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, with Thea Sharrock’s comedy Wicked Little Letters starting in 685 sites through Studiocanal.

Written by Jonny Sweet and based on a true scandal from 1920s England, Wicked Little Letters centres on an English seaside town targeted by a series of obscene letters, that are investigated by a group of women from the area.

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley lead the cast, that also includes Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby and Timothy Spall. Buckley, Vasan and Kirby were named Screen Stars of Tomorrow in 2017, 2021 and 2013.

It is the third feature from UK filmmaker Sharrock,...

Paramount’s “Bob Marley: One Love” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £6.9 million ($8.7 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

Universal’s animation “Migration” dropped a spot to second place with £2.7 million in its third weekend and now has a total of £13.5 million. Sony’s “Madame Web” debuted in third position with £2.2 million.

In fourth place, in its third weekend, Universal’s “Argylle” earned £544,846 for a total of £5 million. Rounding off the top five was Warner Bros.’ “Wonka” that collected £424,825 in its 11th weekend for a total of £62.1 million.

There were no other debuts in the top 10.

The midweek release coming up is the 48th & 1/2 anniversary, as the makers style it, re-release of Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones’ cult 1975 comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” starring John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Gilliam and Jones, from Graft Entertainment. It opens Wednesday, Feb. 21.

“All of Us Strangers...

The Avenue release Land of Bad, powered by Variance, grossed $1.8 million on 1,120 screens, landing in the top ten for the weekend as Variance noted strong word of mouth with Saturday grosses jumping 37% from Friday’ (not including Thursday sneaks). The estimate for the four days is $2.07 million.

The William Eubank film starring Russell Crowe and Liam and Luke Hemsworth is performing best on the West Coast and the heartland/Midwest, with suburban theaters delivering the biggest Fri-to-Sat growth. Thi s is the tale of a covert Special Forces operation in the South Philippines that spirals into a brutal 48-hour battle for survival.

Also strong, Oscar Nominated Short Films opened Friday for their traditional a four-week run, a 19-year ritual that packages animated, live action and documentary shorts into three feature length films. They grossed an estimated $765k on 375 screens for the three-day weekend and $915k for the four days. Packaged and...

It has been said that everybody thinks they’re more intelligent than their parents. Carry that logic back a few generations and it’s hard to understand how the enlightenment happened when today’s scientists are hard pressed to convince people that the Earth is round. That said, we tend to have a seriously low opinion of our cave-dwelling ancestors, assuming that they were stupid, communicated in grunts and hunted by hitting things with clubs. In fact, we’ve had sophisticated language for thousands of years and before we learned how to smelt metals we had to be a lot more innovative to get by using just the materials that were available to us.

Andrew Cumming’s Out Of Darkness endeavours to set the record straight. It follows a group of people who have recently arrived in a strange...

In a conversation with uInterview founder Erik Meers, Andrew Cumming, Director of the recently released movie Out of Darkness, reflected on where his inspiration for the prehistoric horror film originated.

“I was finishing film school and I was watching a documentary one night on the BBC here in the UK and the first episode was about early modern humans and I just thought what a cool time period that has been rarely shared in cinema…or it hasn’t been given the treatment I would like it to have, which is this lean, muscular, slightly violent approach,” he said.

He explained that William Golding’s follow-up book to the classic Lord of the Flies set in the same period, called The Inheritors, played a big role in his vision. Cumming recounted, “I finished that book and I thought, ‘Yes. One day I’m going to make this book.’ If I...

Bleecker Street has picked up U.S. rights to Mikael Håfström’s sci-fi thriller Slingshot, starring Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne and Emily Beecham. Additional cast includes Fauda star Tomer Capone and The Walking Dead’s David Morrissey.

The film, which is written by R. Scott Adams and Nathan Parker (Moon), follows an astronaut who struggles to maintain his grip on reality aboard a possibly fatally compromised mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan.

Bleecker Street is planning a 2024 nationwide theatrical release for the film.

Slingshot is an Astral Pictures production in association with Bluestone Entertainment, Széchenyi Funds Ltd., and Filmsquad. The film was produced by Richard Saperstein, Istvan Major, and Beau Turpin, with executive producers including Ivett Havasi, Shara Kay, Michael Hollingsworth, Tom Nohstadt, Ron Cundy, Nikolett Barabás, Jonathan Krauss, Brooklyn Weaver, and Joanna Plafsky.

The deal was negotiated by Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy on behalf of Bleecker Street with...

Super Bowl weekend is not, historically, an overly fruitful weekend at the box office. The masses of the United States are more concerned about the big game and Hollywood, by and large, doesn't want to compete with that. That's why there were no big new releases out this past weekend. But as a result, that left theaters out to dry. With only "Lisa Frankenstein" to help carry the load, we ended up with the worst Super Bowl weekend ever at the box office. This dumps even more rain on the rained-out parade that is the 2024 box office thus far.

Director Matthew Vaughn's "Argylle" ended up taking the top spot on its second weekend with a dismal $6.5 million. That represents a sharp 63% drop compared to its opening weekend take of $17.4 million. Be that as it may, it still clung onto number one for at least one more week. That's because the horror/comedy "Lisa Frankenstein,...

This marks the lowest-grossing Super Bowl box office weekend in the last five years, with the exception of Covid-19 drastically affecting the 2021 theatergoing experience. Argylle remains No.1 at the box office for the second week in a row, beating out Lisa Frankenstein during the horror romance's opening weekend. The Beekeeper, The Chosen: S4 Episodes 1-3 and Wonka round out the Top 5. The "stone-aged horror thriller" Out of Darkness debuts just outside of the Top 10.

Super Bowl Lviii unleashes an all-out blitz on the box office. Not only was the second weekend in February the lowest-grossing of 2024 domestically (an estimated $37.1 million), but this will go down as the worst Super Bowl weekend in theaters over the last five years, with the exception of 2021’s Covid-19 debacle. Check out the numbers below:

Year | Domestic Weekend | Super Bowl Winner

2024 (Feb. 9-11) | $37.1 million | ?

2023 (Feb. 10-12) | $52.6 million | Kansas City Chiefs

2022 (Feb. 11-13) | $53.8 million | Los Angeles Rams

2021 (Feb.

February continued January’s downturn at the box office, with two new wide releases and a hotly-anticipated Super Bowl Sunday to keep anything from doing particularly well. Read on for the weekend box office report.

Of the two new wide releases, Focus Features’ romantic horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein” was probably the most high-profile one, but otherwise, much of the chatter this weekend was about an impending sporting event and whether a certain pop star might attend.

Even though Matthew Vaughn‘s star-studded action comedy, “Argylle,” took a massive 63% plunge in its second weekend, it still managed to retain first place with a weak $6.5 million, which is back down to the level of the top movies just two weeks ago. It has grossed $28.8 million domestically so far, which isn’t great considering the cost to Apple Studios to buy and release it. It added another $9.4 million internationally this weekend for a global take of $60.1 million so far.

The Taste Of Things, a meditation on turn-of-the-century French cooking — no chicken wings or nachos in sight — is stirring up a nice weekend for IFC Films with $126k and the best per-theater opening of the year so far on Super Bowl weekend.

Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days from Neon is looking at $100k on five screens. In wider release, Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness is at a solid $1 million on circa 900 screens. American Fiction and Poor Things are holding in the top ten.

The Taste Of Things, which premiered at Cannes, winning Best Director for Vietnamese-born French filmmaker Tràn Anh Hùng, is seeing a $42k PTA from three screens. Originally The Pot-au-Feu, it stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin, longtime partners in love and in the kitchen of Dodin’s country villa.

The year is 2024... minus 45,000. Yes, Out of Darkness, Bleecker Street's acclaimed new film from debut director Andrew Cumming, takes place in the Stone Age with hardnosed characters speaking in a foreign dialect. But don't let that deter you. This is terrifying stuff that becomes refreshingly relatable as the characters' harrowing journey progresses — especially when night falls, and the group realizes maybe they're not alone in these vast mountains.

Relationships are tested, hunger pushes them to the brink, and sanity becomes a thing of the past. You may catch shades of past classic films while tuning into Out of Darkness, and as we discovered through our recent conversation with director Cumming, that was perhaps the point. He also spoke about embracing a foreign dialect for his characters, using Sigourney Weaver's iconic role as inspiration and his love for Killers of the Flower Moon.

Survivalist Horror 'From a Female's Point of...

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for “Out of Darkness,” now playing in theaters.

About an hour into “Out of Darkness,” an Old Stone Age monster movie from first-time feature director Andrew Cumming, comes a shocking reveal: It’s not a monster movie at all.

The film, released in theaters Feb. 9, follows a tribe of people living on a desolate Scottish island 45,000 years ago who find themselves prey to a mysterious enemy that picks them off one by one. When 11-year-old Heron suddenly vanishes into the night, the tribe ventures into the forest to find him. Taking a page from “Jaws” and “Alien,” Cumming restrained himself from showing the antagonist until it became absolutely necessary, when it’s finally revealed that the menacing beast that’s hunting the tribe turns out to be human.

More specifically, it’s a pair of Neanderthals, who coexisted with Homo sapiens in Western Europe...

Director Andrew Cumming’s new horror film “Out of Darkness” is a survival movie that recalls classics of the genre like Wes Craven‘s “The Hills Have Eyes,” John Carpenter‘s “The Thing,” and Tobe Hooper‘s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in its tale of a small group under siege by a malevolent force in a hostile, isolated environment. What makes “Out of Darkness” unique is its time period: Its heroes and the unseen monster they’re fleeing exist in a pre-historic world.

This meant Cumming and screenwriter Ruth Greenberg had to figure out how people living in 43,000 Bce would talk, fight, and dress and what kinds of weapons and tools they would use. One of the first people Cumming consulted during the writing phase was Palaeolithic archaeologist Rob Dinnis, who liberated Cumming and Greenberg to create characters to whom modern audiences could relate. “There seem to be two schools of thought within this field,...

Between apocalyptic disaster films and cosmic terrors à la Lovecraft, the horror genre has the theoretical end of humanity pretty well covered. But what about its beginning?

In Andrew Cumming’s magnificent directorial debut “Out of Darkness,” the filmmaker reverses at full speed into the unknown with an imaginative and gruesome wilderness thriller tracking a group of nomads living 45,000 years ago. Part prehistoric “Prey,” part agnostic spin on The Book of Genesis, the film was written by Ruth Greenberg, and premiered under the more sci-fi sounding title “The Origin” at the BFI Film Festival in 2022. The moniker change is just the latest in a line of nuanced creative decisions that makes this ferocious 87-minute monster movie a testament to meticulous storytelling: a scrupulous feat made even more effective by the film’s use of Stone Age brutality and stark narrative simplicity.

Shot in the Scottish Highlands, this existential campfire story...

Set in the Stone Age, the new horror film Out of Darkness follows a group of world-weary survivors seeking asylum in a new land, only to encounter something deadly stalking them in the shadows just outside the flickering flames of their fire.

With Out of Darkness now playing in theaters via Bleecker Street, Daily Dead had the great pleasure of catching up with director Andrew Cumming to discuss the making of his ambitious new horror movie, including filming in the secluded Scottish Highlands, utilizing a new language created just for the film, and bringing the Stone Age to life as authentically as possible.

You can watch our full video interview with Andrew below, and to see if Out of Darkness is playing at a theater near you, visit:

https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/out-of-darkness

Directed by Andrew Cumming and written by Ruth Greenberg, Out of Darkness stars Safia Oakley-Green, Kit Young, Chuku Modu,...

If there’s one word that summarizes the main focus of early man’s life, it’s undoubtedly “survive”. In the gripping Cro-Magnon monster movie Out Of Darkness, directed by Andrew Cumming and penned by Ruth Greenberg, viewers are transported back to a time when humanity was in its infancy, 45,000 years ago. The film boasts a talented ensemble, including Safia Oakley-Green, Kit Young, Chuku Modu, Iola Evans, Arno Lüning, and Luna Mwezi, who find themselves on the brink of existence in a world where every day is a fight for survival.

The storyline unfolds as a small band of early humans arrive on the edge of a stark and unwelcoming land, their journey across a treacherous sea driven by the desperate need for a new beginning. Starvation nips at their heels as they traverse the cold, unforgiving tundra, aiming for the mountains that loom in the distance, hopeful of finding...

It’s a weekend of well-reviewed indie openings with Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness, The Monk And The Gun (from the directors of Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom) and limited openings for The Taste Of Things, Perfect Days (Best International Feature nominated), Anthony Chen’s Drift, Bas Devos’ Here and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, which premiered in Venice in 2021 and is finally getting a U.S. release.

Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Japan’s official Oscar submission that nabbed a nom, opened at six locations in New York and LA Wednesday, adding additional cities next week. The film written by Wenders and Takuma Takasaki stars Hirayama, a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo who seems utterly content with his simple life until a series of unexpected encounters reveal more of his unearthed past. See Deadline review.

Neon had a qualifying run in November.

The following contains spoilers for Out of Darkness, in theaters now.

Pop culture has been much more likely to play the Stone Age for laughs, depicting prehistoric humans as clueless buffoons in shows and movies like The Flintstones, DreamWorks' popular The Croods and Year One. Director Andrew Cumming's dark survival thriller Out of Darkness brings back the danger of the Stone Age with a visceral, unrelenting story about early humans facing an unseen enemy as they search for a new home in a harsh landscape.

Cumming and screenwriter Ruth Greenberg emphasize just how little anyone would have understood about the world around them in the Stone Age, leaving their characters to act on instinct against forces they can't possibly comprehend. At the same time, the heroes in Out of Darkness remain recognizable and relatable, with human traits that have persisted across tens of thousands of years. Stripped of technology...

"Since the Stone Age" is a common expression one might use when describing how long they've been doing something. "They've been working together since the Stone Age," for example. However, a new movie hitting the masses this week quite literally takes place during this era, with its early humans banding together to protect themselves against some sort of evil entity. In a world where Parasite (2019) wins Best Picture, cinephiles shouldn't be deterred if they have to rely on subtitles for their next viewing experience. The characters in Out of Darkness speak a foreign dialect that sounds like a combination of several known languages, but don't let the language barrier fool you — the new film by Andrew Cumming is rich with modern-day themes about humanity's place in this world.

"We've Been Trapped"

Out of Darkness R 4/5 Release DateFebruary 9, 2024DirectorAndrew CummingCastChuku Modu, Kit Young, Iola Evans, Safia Oakley-GreenRuntime1hr 27minMain Genre Horror...

A unique Stone Age horror movie, Out of Darkness – previously titled The Origin – is now playing in theaters courtesy of Bleecker Street, and we’ve got an exclusive clip for ya today.

In this clip, the characters come across the disemboweled carcass of a woolly mammoth, which raises one terrifying question: what the hell is capable of killing such a massive beast?

Watch the clip below and find the trailer for Out of Darkness underneath.

We’ve been told, “It’s a tense, emotional, and incredibly crafted film; so much creativity went into making the paleolithic world – including the entire language spoken in the film, which was created specifically for this by a linguist and an archaeologist.”

In the film, “A small boat reaches the shores of a raw and desolate landscape. A group of six have struggled across the narrow sea to find a new home. They are starving,...

Beginning with a rip-off of the (depending on who you ask) iconic Scott Free Productions logo––albeit with a rabbit instead of bird––I knew I was in for something deeply derivative with Out of Darkness. And perhaps that technically proficient-if-soulless feel that defines many of one Scott brother is what particularly shapes this new horror picture. It’s essentially a prehistoric slasher, the film’s opening taking place around a spooky campfire tale that, for one, makes clear its lineage back to the original Friday the 13th. Yet the stock butchered teenagers of that franchise were honestly preferable company to the muddy, grunting Before Common Era folk we’re stuck with.

Certainly there’s a heavier pall over this group, like pregnancy and the lineage, as we follow the family unit of leader Adem (Chuku Modu), doted-over son Heron (Luna Mwezi), and the bun-in-the-oven Ave (Iola Evans). Accompanying them...

Plot: In the Old Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged.

Review: When choosing a debut film, it takes a certain amount of cajónes to choose one set during the Paleolithic era. Just from a budget standpoint, the task seems impossible. But add in the difficulties of getting an audience to connect with your story, and it seems like something only a crazy person would do. But somehow director Andrew Cumming really pulls it off. In fact, I was shocked to discover that this was made by a first-timer because there’s such a command of the screen. Though, I’d argue that Out of Darkness is more of a story of survival than a straight-up horror film.

Out of Darkness is an immersive horror thriller. The film's atmospheric style adds to the immersive experience. The movie's shift in priorities in the third act detract from its overall impact.

Horror fans are a generous audience, and as much as everyone wants to see great movies, there are really two key questions that need answering: Is the premise interesting, and is it creatively executed? Even one yes can be enough to make the experience worthwhile. In that framework, Out of Darkness is certainly worth a look. It takes a simple, familiar survival setup and winds back the clock 45,000 years, dropping us with a rag-tag group of cavepeople. Having left their tribe to explore unknown territory and found it barren and unforgiving, we meet them already in dire straits.

Then, they are beset by something. After seeing no life, they find evidence of death, in the form of a mammoth carcass picked to the bone.

This week brings four new horror movies to the table, and they’re all releasing on the same day. That should make this Friday feel like Friday the 13th… even if it’s actually Friday the 9th.

Here’s all the new horror releasing on February 9, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

First up, Stone Age horrors will be unleashed in Out of Darkness, which had previously been titled The Origin. Bleecker Street brings the film to theaters on Friday, February 9.

We’ve been told, “It’s a tense, emotional, and incredibly crafted film; so much creativity went into making the paleolithic world – including the entire language spoken in the film, which was created specifically for this by a linguist and an archaeologist.”

In the film, “A small boat reaches the shores of a raw and desolate landscape. A group of six have struggled...

It’s Super Bowl weekend with the San Francisco 49ers taking on the Kansas City Chiefs, with many tuning in just to see if Taylor Swift can make it to Las Vegas from her Saturday night concert in Tokyo. Plus, there’s exactly one new wide release. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

It’s been a number of years since we’ve heard from Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody of “Juno” fame, but she’s written the new horror-comedy “Lisa Frankenstein,” which stars Kathryn Newton (“Big Little Lies”) as Lisa, a young woman who falls in love with a corpse, played by Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”), and decides to try to bring him back to life. Directed by Zelda Williams – the daughter of the late, great Robin Williams – the movie is fully targeted toward the younger female audiences that have made musicals like “Wonka” and “Mean Girls” decent-sized box office hits,...

Stars: Chuku Modu, Luna Mwezi, Iola Evans, Kit Young, Arno Lüning, Safia Oakley-Green | Written by Ruth Greenberg | Directed by Andrew Cumming

I can almost imagine Out of Darkness’ director Andrew Cumming pitching the film to potential backers as Quest for Fire meets Predator. And that would be a fairly accurate description of this Stone Age thriller about a tribe of early humans being picked off by an unseen foe. And one that makes it sound a lot less cerebral and more commercial than it might otherwise appear.

45,000 years ago, six early humans have left their tribe to find a new home. Leading the group is Adem, who also has his young son Heron and Ave who’s carrying Adem’s child along with him. Also making the trek are Geirr, Adem’s more cautious second-in-command and Odal’s who seems to be some kind of shaman and last, and certainly least,...

“Out of Darkness” directed by Andrew Cumming is a new Brit-produced ‘caveman’ live-action dramatic thriller, set 45,000 years ago, opening February 9, 2024 in a limited theatrical release:

“…a small boat reaches the shores of a raw and desolate landscape.A group of six had struggled across the narrow seat to find a new home. They are starving, desperate, and living 45,000 years ago. First they must find shelter, and they strike out across the tundra wastes towards the distant mountains that promise the abundant caves needed to survive.

“But when night falls, anticipation turns to fear and doubt as they realize they are not alone. Terrifying sounds suggest something monstrous and large in this landscape, something that could kill or steal them away.

“As relationships in the group fracture, the determination of one young woman reveals the terrible actions taken to survive…

Click the images to enlarge…...

Movies about Stone Age life have been so few that just one past effort could be taken seriously, the rest being funny — intentionally or otherwise. Belatedly offering non-laughable companionship to Jean-Jacques Annaud’s 1981 “Quest for Fire” is “Out of Darkness,” a lean, mean adventure story on the cusp of horror that firsttime feature director Andrew Cumming imbues with tension and handsome visual atmospherics.

Titled “The Origin” when it premiered at BFI London Fest in fall 2022, since retitled (presumably to avoid confusion with Ava DuVernay’s current “Origin”), it’s a strong genre piece lent real novelty by being set approximately 45,000 years ago. Bleecker Street opens the U.K. indie production on more than 500 U.S. screens this Friday, simultaneous with a home-turf release.

We meet our protagonists around a campfire — unlike those of “Quest,” set circa 80,000 B.C., these prehistoric ancestors have figured that much out — as they air hopes...

"Danger is everywhere." Signature Entertainment in the UK has unveiled their own official UK trailer for the survival thriller titled Out of Darkness, set during the Old Stone Age, some 45,000 years ago. It's opening in theaters nationwide (in the US) this week, in the UK later in Feb. This originally premiered at the 2022 London Film Festival a year ago, as it's a British production, and it's finally getting released this year. In the Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. As night falls, ominous sounds shatter the idea they are alone. Fear grips the group, relationships unravel, trust fractures, and the relentless pursuit of survival unveils dark secrets. When they suspect a malevolent, mystical, being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they have never envisaged. The cast is lead by Safia Oakley-Green as Beyah, Chuku Modu as Adem,...

The elemental tale of man versus nature is one that we’ve been telling since the days of cave paintings. The tale of man versus a big, scary creature has been one of that tradition’s most reliably entertaining iterations since the dawn of Hollywood, and Andrew Cumming’s Stone Age thriller Out of Darkness makes for a worthy addition.

The film is set 45,000 years ago. After making a daring journey across the sea, a small band of Stone Agers have arrived in an unfamiliar place that they hope to call home. Sadly, this place isn’t the land of milk, honey, and warm, cozy caves that they’d been dreaming of. Rather, it’s a gray and barren place where rough, rocky hills seem to roll out endlessly in all directions. It makes for a dispiriting landscape during the day, and it’s even worse when darkness falls and...

As we once again find ourselves in the midst of another year at the movies, we eagerly look forward to the films scheduled for release in the coming year. There is probably something coming out that should be over interest to everyone (at least that’s probably the hope of most filmmakers). As always, there will be the usual sequels and big blockbusters, as well as a plethora of additional titles in multiple genres to choose from. We hope you find this list of the upcoming films of 2024 and their release dates useful and that it helps you plan what you’re going to look forward to over the next twelve months.

The list below gathers all of the titles we know (right now at least) that are coming in 2024 by their current release date. Remember, these dates are subject to change. So, as dates change (and time permits) we...

Exclusive: Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) has been set to star opposite Cate Blanchett in Rumours, a comedy from writer-directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson (The Green Fog), which Bleecker Street has snapped up for release in U.S. theaters this year.

The film follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies at the annual G7 summit after they become lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis.

Also featuring in a top role in the pic, which recently wrapped production in Hungary, is Genie Award winner Roy Dupuis (Shake Hands with the Devil). Additional cast includes Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Knock at the Cabin), Rolando Ravello (Perfect Strangers), Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo), and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness).

Hailing from Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen’s Square Peg,...

45,000 years ago. Six people search for a new home in a brutally inhospitable landscape and when night falls they are stalked by a terrifying enemy… Set in the Stone Age, a tight knit tribe of early humans are on a journey to find new land and secure a better future for themselves. As they navigate unknown and treacherous terrain, they realise that something lurks in the darkness. As the group falls victim one-by-one, one young woman stands between the survival of the tribe and their gruesome demise.

From Scottish director Andrew Cumming in his feature debut, Out Of Darkness is written by Ruth Greenberg (Run), produced by Oliver Kassman (Saint Maud), and stars an exciting young British cast including Safia Oakley-Green (Extraordinary), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), and Chuku Modu. Signature Entertainment presents Out Of Darkness only in cinemas 9th February 2024

The post Stone Age Thriller Out Of Darkness – In...

Top to bottom: Kerry Condon in Night Swim (courtesy Universal Pictures), Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse in Lisa Frankenstein (courtesy Focus Features), Imaginary (courtesy Lionsgate)Graphic: The A.V. Club

After wrapping up a great year of horror cinema in 2023, the genre shows no signs of resting on its laurels in...