Coming Home in The Dark

A 15 days of Halloween mini review

Day 12

Coming Home in the Dark poster

Sometimes it’s good to go in blind, sometimes it’s not. I picked Coming Home in The Dark (Ashcroft, 2021) off of the back of its evocative title and because, as it’s a New Zealand production, I wanted some different perspectives from my horror challenge viewing this year.

I’m glad I watched it in that regard, as it does have a unique story to tell, but I wish I’d warmed myself into it by preparing for brutality and themes of child abuse from the start.

So; vague no spoilers plot: The tranquility of the New Zealand countryside is broken for Hoaggie (Erik Thomson) and his family when a secluded hike turns into a kidnap road trip.

SPOILERS plot

Highway Men Mandrake (Daniel Guillies) and Tubs, (Matthias Luafutu) rob Hoagie, Jill, (Miriama McDowell) and their two boys with shotguns. By a twist of fate, the men recognise Hoagie as a teacher from the school where they suffered terrible abuse.

Mandrake blows the boys away and drives the parents ‘home’ while toying with them and waxing philosophical. Over the course of the eventful journey, everyone must confront what happened in the past; from the victims, to those who stood by, to those who had no part in it.

If CHITD reminded me of one film in particular it was Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. (Either version but mostly the 1997 original) Mandrake is portrayed as a pseudo intellectual with no empathy similar to Paul, and Tubs is the soft spoken dogsbody accomplice. There is no mercy, even for the children.

It felt at the start that Jill was going to be the main character but she slowly faded out. She didn’t really have an ending either, left in a limbo state.

The two sons were dynamic with interesting performances, but as I said; they were instantly killed off. This left me feeling somewhat cheated and annoyed which was hard to shake for the rest of the duration. I had to make an active effort to re-engage with the narrative. Maybe that’s what director James Ashcroft wanted; an active viewer experience.

There are many well-done moments of drama and suspense in CHITD. A lot of the focus ends up on Mandrake and Hoaggie, but much of my interest lay with Tubs. The trouble is Tubs seems to fall into stereotype quite easily and wasn’t given enough to round out his character. He seems only to exist to bring about the ending.

It’s a good film, I’m glad I watched it. It’s just maybe not for me. I’ve rewatched Funny Games in the past despite not finding the content ‘enjoyable,’ but FG uses many narrative devices that make it an important piece of cinema. (Even then, I feel I’ve watched it enough now for how disturbing it is.) I don’t think I’d watch Coming Home in the Dark again as the way the story is told is relatively straightforward. I did however come away wanting to re-read Frankenstein to see if I’ve misunderstood it!