Halloween Horrorfest 2018: AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS (2018)

It's probably a bad idea to reveal
your one Money Shot on the poster...

I picked this one at random.  It’s a  British feature where someone is trying to make a point about something--maybe it’s about how government and religion are the same in some people’s eyes, or about the way we trust technology too much or maybe it’s about the old classic George Romero Standby of ‘People just fuck things up for themselves.’  I really don’t know, because whatever that point was, it gets muddled by some vague screenwriting and unfocused directing.

Nick (the very Matt Damonesque Sam Gittens) is bringing his medic girlfriend Angie (Neerja Naik) to meet his family for Christmas.  Nick has been estranged from his father Tony (Grant Masters) for unspecified reasons.  The visit goes rather pear-shaped rapidly, particular when it comes to how the family reacts to Angie being Indian, and the pair decide to leave ultra-early the next morning...except the next morning, the doors and windows of the house are covered by what appears to be black corrugated metal and no one can leave.

And then the television starts flashing the message ‘Stay Indoors and Await Further Instructions.’

And for a long time--and it could be argued too long a time--that’s all we know.  The television keeps flashing instructions that seem more and more unreasonable, and there’s a divide between Nick and Angie on one side and Tony on the other.  Tony is convinced this is some sort of government quarantine and insists on following the instructions, while the couple are...well, skeptical, especially when, let's say, it expects them to inject themselves with mystery hypodermics that were obviously already used... 

Not surprisingly, as we’ve learned in every movie like this we’ve seen reaching back to Night of the Living Dead, the family begins to disintegrate under the strain of not knowing what’s going on and things get worse and worse.  Nick suspects this is some form of sadistic experiment, and for the bulk of the film we assume that as well.  The acting is acceptable, and carries us through the increasingly outlandish incidents...and then writer Gavin Williams decides to reveal what’s going on, kinda sorta.  What follows involved a lot of me saying, ‘What the Fuck?’

The film is directed in a mostly workmanlike  way by Johnny Kevorkian save for those moments where he tries to be auteur-y and flashy, and in those moments the film falls flat on its face.  It’s those moments where I kept feeling like I should be gaining some sort of insight, but just get a sense of Kevorkian going ‘Look At What I Can Do.’  It’s telling to me that this is only his second feature, and that first feature was ten years ago.  If it wasn’t for the actors, I suspect the film would have collapsed a lot sooner than it did.  When the third act ‘revelations’ hit, they make the story problems worse.  I ended up wondering what was going on just as much as I did before the house is besieged by what appears to be licorice whips.  I think the ending was supposed to be ominous, but it just left me scratching my head.

There is a story here.  The actors are game.  But Await Further Instructions ends up being confusing, opaque and not very satisfying.  It’s a professional looking movie, but I don’t think I can recommend it.

How YOU Can Curate The 2nd Half Of The Horrorfest!

There's still time to help curate this year's Halloween Horrorfest

If you donate $31 to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network before October 15th and send me the receipt proving you did, you can name one movie I have to watch during the Horrorthon.  Keep in mind there are some things I won’t do (so no Eli Fucking Roth movies, for example), and it has to be a movie I can find.  If you’re an independent filmmaker and are willing to make the donation, by all means send me the film.  I will do as many as I can before October 31st, and those I can't I will view in the days after Halloween during ‘Beyond Halloween Horrorfest.'