Monday, October 7, 2019

Chills & Thrills: Await Further Instructions (2018)



Movie Name/Year: Await Further Instructions (2018)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Length: 91 minutes
Rating: TV-MA
Production/Distribution: Goldfinch, Premiere Picture, Shudder Films, Trinity Filmed Entertainment, Dark Sky Films, Begin Again Films, Interfilm, Amazon Prime Video, Movie Cloud, Njutafilms, Tema Distribuciones, Tiberius Film
Director: Johnny Kevorkian
Writer: Gavin Williams
Actors: Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Abigail Cruttenden, David Bradley, Grant Masters, Holly Weston, Kris Saddler

Blurb from IMDb: A family's Christmas takes a strange turn when they awake to find themselves trapped inside and begin receiving mysterious instructions through the television.


Selina’s Point of View:
I remember this film from the trailers. I came across it when I made one of my Top 20s and it made the list.

A few things immediately cross my mind now that I’ve seen it. 



The most important thing is that the trailer has some spoilers that don’t look like much out of context, but once you’re watching the actual film, you immediately know what’s going to happen. Because of that, I can’t recommend watching the coming attraction if you intend to watch the movie. If you’re fine knowing stuff ahead of time, then go for it – otherwise? Avoid it at all costs. (I have, however, included the trailer at the bottom.)

Secondly, the majority of the big scenes in the film are all shown in the preview. A good portion of the rest of it is filler.


With that in mind, you might be wondering if I regret adding it to my Top 20. In general, the answer is no. It mostly felt like a British Black Mirror (2011-) episode and the idea behind it wasn’t bad. A lot of the filler wasn’t even bad. 

That said – I do regret putting it as high as I did. Looking back, it seems I put it at number 8 and… no. It didn’t belong there.

Although I didn’t outright hate this horror flick, my rating is a little closer to the audience score than the critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. 



I get what the creators were trying to accomplish, but I think a lot of it wound up feeling heavy handed on the lesson. By the time it was over, I felt preached to. I don’t want to feel like someone just lectured me at the end of a horror film. I want to feel properly creeped out.

I wouldn’t outright steer someone away from Await Further Instructions, but it’s never going to be the first movie that comes to mind when someone asks for recommendations.


Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 84%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 24%
Metascore – 64/100
Metacritic User Score – 3.0/10
IMDB Score – 4.7/10
CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating2.5/5

Movie Trailer:


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