COMING HOME IN THE DARK

New Zealand, 2021, 93 minutes, Colour.

Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Mariana McDowell, Matthias Luafutu.

Directed by James Ashcroft.

The title has two important themes indicated. The obvious one is the emphasis on the dark, this film being a very long, literal, journey into night. The expectations of coming home, especially with the introduction to the family, would be to their own home. But it is not.

This is a terror film. Some have categorised it is horror but it is, more accurately, menace and terror. And it is very effective in portraying menace and terror on the screen but also eliciting quite some terror and fear in the audience as it watches the characters and what befalls them. The film has received very good reviews and screenings at festivals. It is very effective in its creation of atmosphere, working on the conventions of the road movie, and, ultimately, raising significant issues for the audience to ponder.

The film was shot in the area around the New Zealand capital, Wellington. As it opens, we are in a car, an ordinary family going for an outing, mother and father (Erik Thomson and Mariana McDowell)  and their relationship, boys squabbling in the back in the usual manner, stopping at the service station, passing through beautifully rugged countryside, ultimately arriving at the destination, going hiking, and enjoying a picnic on the riverside.

What could go wrong? And the film is the answer to that question.

Unexpectedly, in this remote area, two strangers wander in, one bearded, somewhat sinister (a sometimes quietly fierce performance from Daniel Gillies), the other, Tubs, thin and silent, Maori background (Matthias Luafutu). The sinister man introduces himself as Mandrake, a magician able to ring changes. Then some shock moments, so unexpected, dreadful, and the tone of the narrative of the film is changed.

Some commentators on the film remember A Clockwork Orange and the menacing and then violent intrusion of the thuggish Droogs. Others remember the story filmrd twice, a story of home invasion, menace to a family, The Desperate Hours (1955 and 1990). This is sustained menace to the family.

As the night advances and Mandrake and Tubs drive away with their captives, there are confrontations, attempted escapes, visit to the service station again, the husband using his wits, brutality towards his wife, what might be expected in this kind of threatening journey.

However, what is important in the screenplay and the portrayal of characters is Mandrake’s motivation in pursuing the husband. As they drive, there are interrogations, revelations about the husband’s past as a teacher – opening up more about the 1980s, a home for boys, the dreadful treatment that they received, the building of resentment, the growing angers as they grew older, vengeance preoccupying their attitude towards life.

As the tension grows, Mandrake decides to drive to the site of the home itself, eliciting some flashbacks, the audience understanding more and more what has happened in the past, and the challenge to the husband, a young man in those days on the staff of the institution, witnessing the sadistic behaviour of the teachers, challenged as to what he might have done, should have done?

Which is what is left for the audience to react to, to think about – and, in these days of the aftermath of Royal Commissions, investigations into physical and sexual abuse, Coming Home in the Dark is a film that dramatises what many of the abused have felt, feel, have survived but need some kind of acknowledgement, compensation, healing.

1. The title? The littering gathering of the dark? The irony of the coming home? The home?
2. A New Zealand film? Atmosphere? Story? History of orphanages and abuse?
3. The settings, isolation, mountains, rivers, the sea? The beauty of the landscapes? The hiking? The picnic? The musical score?
4. Introduction to the family, most audiences identifying with them, the father and his relationship with his wife, her being in command times, the two boys in the back, rivalries and fighting? Conversation, music disputes? Stopping at the store? The hiking, the beauty, the picnic? No suggestion of what was to come?
5. The arrival of the two men, the family and wariness? Mandrake, explanation of his name? Tubs, appearance, silent? Sense of menace? The rifle? The reaction of the family, fear, on the ground, the shock of the shooting of the two boys? Tubs and the disposal of the bodies in the river? Jill being knocked unconscious?
6. Mandrake, his appearance, personality, sinister, calm in his manner, controlled? Interactions and banter? Hoaggie and his nickname? Putting Jill in the car? Hoaggie?
7. The mystery, the motivation? Seemingly random violence? Sadistic?
8. Mandrake and the interrogation of Hoaggie, emerging that he was a teacher, the different schools, gradual revelation that he was at the boys’ home? The 1980s? Jill, the teacher, competent? Her not knowing the details of her husband’s past?
9. The revelation about the treatment of the boys, the boy and the scraping of his tattoo? That Hoaggie was in the school, on the staff, early years, his standing by, his reaction, not intervening? The sadistic behaviour of the master? The behaviour of the rest of the staff? The lineups, military style, the treatment of the boys?
10. Driving through the night, cars passing on the road, stopping at the service station, Hoaggie and his device of going to the toilet, the screw and schooling message on the toilet seat, explanations to the proprietor? His feigning a fall, putting the screw in the tire? Driving away, the return, Mandrake and his attack on the proprietor, bashing him?
11. The confrontations with Jill, in the car, Hoaggie trying to reach out to touch her hand? His urging her to run from the station, the pursuit and taking her? Tubs, his silence, watching over them? The throwing herself from the car? The pursuit, at the bridge, throwing herself over, the question of whether she survived or not?
12. The flat tire, the changing the tire, the offer of help? Hoaggie running, the lights, the vast oval, the joyride, the young people in the car, refusing to help him? Mandrake arriving, the confrontation, their getting out of the car, the being shot? One escaping?
13. The final confrontation between Mandrake and Hoaggie? Hoaggi’s past taunting of Tubs at being on Mandrake’s leash? Mandrake, the shooting,
14. the final stage of the journey, coming home in the dark, the glimpses of the institution, outside, the interiors, walking through the vast building, ruins, dilapidated? The flashbacks illustrating the boy, the scraping, his carving on the rock, memories? Hoaggie getting the rock, bashing Mandrake? The two confronting each other? Tubs walking in, looking at Mandrake, shooting him, walking away? Tubs stating that he hated the place?
15. The audience experience of the picnic and the change, the shock of the boys’ deaths? Coping with Mandrake and his violence, Tubs, the gradual revelation of the story? The criticisms of the homes and the violent treatment? The building up of resentment, to anger, to revenge?