Out of Darkness: Here’s How This Stone Age Thriller Surprised Me

[Pelican Press 0]

Out of Darkness: Here’s How This Stone Age Thriller Surprised Me

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/The Conversation

Neither the choice of genre (survivalist horror) nor time ******* (43,000 years ago) bodes well for Out of Darkness. After all, films set in the stone age tend to be comedic, sexualized or woefully historically inaccurate. Think Ice Age (2002), Clan of the ***** Bear (1986) or 10,000BC (2008) – in which mammoths help build the pyramids. Yet this film is neither. It goes way beyond expectations with its attempts at historical accuracy, and what’s more it is fun to watch – especially if suspense or a high body count are your thing.

A film set at the time of modern human and Neanderthal interactions is long overdue, given both the better public understanding of this ******* and Neanderthals being thought of in 

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 than ten years ago.

What’s more, as we face more existential threats there is a greater tendency to look to the distant past for inspiration for how we should live, both 

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 and 

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. Still, the producers of Out of Darkness should be applauded for having the guts to tackle some of the real challenges of setting a film in this *******.

They have used as authentic a language as possible – hiring linguist Dr Daniel Andersson to create a stone age-sounding language especially for the film, translated for the audience using subtitles. They also cast actors with accurate skin tones. The makeup of the group at its heart is realistic, with older and vulnerable members and, refreshingly, a competent, proactive woman lead (who is dressed in appropriate clothing, rather than a 

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).

Is the film historically accurate?

Out of Darkness follows a small group of modern humans who set out across the Europe of 43,000 years ago, trying to find new land and rescue the leader’s son, who has apparently been taken by some strange creatures.

There are amazing landscapes, tense scenes and – as is expected from a survivalist horror – few people left standing after the carnage. For those of us looking for meaning under the macabre, there is a cautionary tale about acting on assumptions and the dangers of rage and *****.

There is plenty of detail here which fits the evidence we have about this ******* of the stone age (known as the middle-upper palaeolithic transition). There’s fitted clothing with fur inside, decorated spears, *****-lighting kits, a 

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 (a bone disc with a central *****) and Neanderthals with raptor feather headdresses.

Safia Oakley-Green plays the strong female lead in Out of Darkness. (Signature Entertainment/

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)

There are even rather slick references for the knowledgeable. ***** mammoths are shown at the bottom of a ravine modelled on La Cotte de St Brelade, a Neanderthal hunting site in Jersey. Neanderthals are shown taking and wearing modern human jewellery as a nod to the 

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, found in the south of France.

People are ******* at a location that looks remarkably like the most famous Neanderthal burial site, 

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 in Iraq. Even depictions of 

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 are not at odds with what we know of mortuary practices in the *******.

The wider social settings also bring some welcome authenticity. Telling firelight stories of courageous journeys into new lands, the elderly, young and pregnant work together.

Is Out of Darkness entirely prehistorically accurate? No, of course not. But it goes way beyond most depictions. In reality, stone age people would have carried tents and built shelters, not fought over a cold damp *****. They would also have found a fair bit of food in the tundra rather than starving. And of course it is not clear how the characters in the film managed to shave.

I would also expect links to other groups, or perhaps more of a story as to why this group is so isolated. And the voices of the Neanderthals are a bit too far-fetched (more like a squawk than high-pitched language). What’s more, the lack of other living things depicted feels like a missed opportunity to include more predators, which were 

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 in the stone age.

Stone age bad guys

As a professor of the archaeology of human origins, the one thing I dislike about the film is that subservience to the “bad guys” doesn’t fit 

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.

The leader of this small band of travelers, Adem (Chuku Modu), is a bit of bully, who tells women what to do or say, and supports some hierarchy in which “strays eat last”. Neither the impulsiveness nor the ********* fit what we know of 

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. Their 

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 (capacity to feel emotions consciously rather than simply act on them) was actually far better than ours in our 

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 modern societies.

No sign of Raquel Welch-style fur bikinis, thankfully. (Signature Entertainment/

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)

It is also hard to see how humans and Neanderthals could 

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 for as much as 10,000 years with such a mutual wipe out. But given that bloodshed comes with the genre, all of this may be something we need to forgive.

I might perhaps let them get away with this if we accept these people were some kind of 

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, in which dominance tactics might be more tolerated and normal rules didn’t apply.

There is, after all, plenty to love. Out of Darkness offers a great portrayal of a capable stone age woman protagonist – and equally capable Neanderthal woman. Beyah (Safia Oakley-Green) is adept with both ******, spear and any convenient rock, dispatching people whenever the occasion demands (which seems to be pretty regularly).

There will always be some gripes over accuracy here and there, but Out of Darkness is fun to watch, and it is great to see the ******* opening up to more informed popular imagination. I’m hoping for a sequel.

Top image: Safia Oakley-Green plays the strong female lead in Out of Darkness. Source:  Signature Entertainment/

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This article was originally published under the title ‘

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’ by on 

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, and has been republished under a Creative Commons License.

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stone age, film, Neolithic
#Darkness #Heres #Stone #Age #Thriller #Surprised

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