'Out of Darkness' review: prehistoric horror according to the book

We don't know much about prehistoric humanity, except the idea that it wasn't very human. Even paleontologists find that the accepted facts in the field are constantly revised based on new theories and an incomplete fossil record. Suffice it to say that if it was 45,000 years ago, as stated in the grim, unnerving and sometimes ridiculous horror film “Out of Darkness,” what you're primarily looking for is a warm cave to avoid the cannibals. There are no villages and few tools or amenities.

British director Andrew Cumming, in his feature debut, took a crew to the Scottish Highlands (where 1981's “Quest for Fire” was also filmed) to capture what is essentially “Alien” or “The Blair Witch Project.” , as a small A group of terrified characters are eliminated by a sinister creature wailing in the fog-shrouded forest. Desperate, they try to light a bonfire before the sunlight goes out. It doesn't matter. There is a monotony to the sequence construction, as does Adam Janota Bzowski's instant-Penderecki percussion score.

There's a kind of rigor to the completely made-up language that the actors speak persuasively while sporting stylishly seamed pants, manicured eyebrows, and trimmed beards. (Blades do not appear for several millennia.) Safia Oakley-Green finds her place as Beyah, a tough survivor within the pack, which also includes a reckless leader, Adem (Chuku Modu), a useless and panicked counselor (Arno Luening) and Adem's untested son. (Moon Mwezi).

“Out of Darkness” is effective (and gory) enough to work as a noise-type thriller. But a last-act realization of the depth of Ruth Greenberg's script seems unearned. Remember those debates a few years ago about “high” horror? This is more like evolved horror. Our instincts haven't changed much over time. Dirty and compromised, Cumming's effort is an especially heavy one to get to that point of origin.