A school teacher is forced to confront a brutal act from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters take him and his family on a nightmare road trip.
Based on a short story by Owen Marshall, “Coming Home in the Dark” centers on revenge played out decades after horrible atrocities tore several people apart. Some traumas get subsumed by witnesses who, after interrogating their own moral failures, find new lives and bury the trauma. Others let trauma dictate their every waking moment transforming. “Coming Home in the Dark” interrogates that cycle with ever-increasing brutality as our protagonist encounters horrifying shock only to then be dragged across the beautiful New Zealand countryside. The film delivers shocking blows in an unevenly paced film all while interrogating who gets revenge and what value it has.
James Ashcroft directs this adaptation skillfully. His four main talents (Daniel Gilles, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell, and Matthias Luafutu) carry the brunt of this film as we settle in for a shocking ride. Two drifters named Mandrake and Tubs discover an idyllic family on vacation. After holding them hostage, the two men take the two parents on a ride through the New Zealand backroads to revisit the site of an old tragedy: a boarding school famous for its covered-up abuses.
Admittedly, the heft of the film comes in the first and final thirty minutes so the middle third lags significantly compared to the other thirds. Its central conceit of returning a schoolteacher to the site where he turned a blind eye drags out slowly once it’s known and even the surprising violence in the first third numbs us to the middle third’s emotional effect. Only the subdued charisma of Daniel Gillies’ utterly sociopathic Mandrake keeps us invested in the film. His everyday perspective really drags out the tension in the scene, never overdoing it just ever-so-slightly pushing the parents (and audience) little by little.
It’s a bleak film with a slimmed-down budget, but it never feels overwrought. Its natural production design and late-night shooting lend the whole movie an urgency. Car headlights starkly illuminate silhouettes, forcing us to shield our eyes. It’s almost entirely natural locations and a car for a full three-fourths of the film. This stripped-down aesthetic makes the parents’ escape feel hurried. It’s in your face, immediate, and taut.
The film shows us shifting allegiances as horrific sins come to light, but the callous violence on display prevents us from really switching teams. Ultimately, the film settles by begging the question: Whose revenge is it? Mandrake? Mandrake’s partner Tubs? Where does this cycle end? Ultimately, it leaves behind a broken family and blood on the pavement. In a borderline beatific manner, the film’s stark brutalism can either snag your attention entirely or miss the mark. If you’re a fan of slow-burners then this is for you. Otherwise, maybe move on.
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