Movie Review: 'Coming Home in the Dark'

Coming Home in the Dark is a grim and fearsome revenge movie. The story of a family that takes a day trip to a New Zealand mountain range only to be assaulted and kidnapped by thieves with a secret agenda, Coming Home in the Dark quickly becomes shocking and never really lets up from there. Directed by newcomer James Ashcroft, Coming Home in the Dark is about the past, the present and the complicity of inaction.

Hoagie (Erik Thomson) is a mild mannered guy, a teacher and family man. When we meet Hoagie, he is in the car with his wife, Jill (Miriama McDowell) and their two sons. They are on their way to an afternoon of hiking and picnicking next to a lake in the mountains, a beautiful and mostly empty space. Everything is achingly normal, the boys argue and make a little trouble, mom takes a phone away from one who is being particularly out of line.

They arrive at the mountain range and there is only a moment of disquiet. As they are walking, one of the boys spots two men on the top of the mountain range. They are not dressed for hiking and strangely, they wave in an awkwardly friendly manner. The boy ignores them and says nothing and the family moves on to their campsite by the lake. Things are normal for a few more minutes until the two men from the mountain range arrive and one of them reveals a shotgun.

The family is being robbed, the men are taking their wallets, phones and vehicle. That would hopefully be all that happened but no and here is where I must abandon some of the plot description in order to preserve the twists and turns of Coming Home in the Dark. Eventually, mom and dad are kidnapped, put into the vehicle with the two men who we learn are named Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) and Tubs (Mathias Luafutu).

What do these men plan for their hostages? Where are they going and why? These questions will be answered eventually but most of the time we are as in the dark as Hoagie and Jill. Mandrake and Tubs are not much for sharing either their plans or motivations though Mandrake will slowly begin to unfold a tale that appears to hint that this was no merely random robbery and kidnapping, there is an underlying purpose to what is happening here that will also be revealed over the course of Coming Home in the Dark.

For a first time director, James Ashcroft shows some serious talent. Ashcroft directs Coming Home in the Dark with a great deal of confidence and clarity. His style is brutal and unrelenting, rather reminiscent of Aussie auteur John Hillcoath whose films The Road and The Proposition have a similarly grim and unrelenting style to them. Ashcroft doesn’t shy away from violence but it’s never without a brutal purpose that underlines the nature of his characters, specifically Mandrake who drives the plot.

Daniel Gillies cuts a terrifying figure. His long brown duster and bushy goatee indicate a man well acquainted with depravity. He’s a hard man and yet he layers in a sort of wounded child quality throughout that doesn’t make him sympathetic but rather, understandable. It’s clear that a series of traumas has led this character to this place and time and Gillies does well to demonstrate the emotional wounds and scars that have festered into hatred and violence.

Coming Home in the Dark is a powerhouse thriller. The film has an uncompromising style and a director with a distinct and grim vision. I don’t usually go for movies this harsh and forbidding but the story that unfolds in Coming Home in the Dark has intrigue to spare and keeps you on edge throughout as you wonder where all of this is going. The ending is harsh and unsparing and apt for a story this bleak and fatalistic.

Coming Home in the Dark will be available for streaming rental as of October 1st, 2021.