COMING HOME IN THE DARK
Feature Film (92’)
“When you look back, this will be the moment you’ll wish you’d done something.”
A teacher is forced to confront a secret from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters take his family on a nightmare road-trip.
A family’s idyllic outing descends into terror when high school teacher Alan ‘Hoaggie’ Hoaganraad, his wife Jill and stepsons Maika and Jordon go exploring an isolated coastline. But an unexpected meeting with a pair of murderous drifters thrusts the family into a nightmare road trip where they find themselves captured by the enigmatic psychopath Mandrake and his hulking man-child accomplice Tubs. At first the family’s terror seems to be born of a random encounter with two sociopaths who seem intent on god only knows what. But as the night drags on Hoaggie and Jill realize that this nightmare has been set in motion 20 years earlier; and as they approach their mysterious final destination Mandrake reveals the horrible secret driving his actions leaving Hoaggie to face a questionable past before the sun rises.
Premiere: Sundance Film Festival (Midnight), 2021
Credits
Directed by: James Ashcroft / Produced by: Catherine Fitzgerald, Mike Minogue, Desray Armstrong / Screenplay by: Eli Kent, James Ashcroft
Director of Photography: Matt Henley / Editor: Annie Collins
Starring: Daniel Gillies, Erik Thompson, Miriama McDowell, Matthias Luafutu
Homecoming Productions, in Association with the New Zealand Film Commission Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga
Festivals & Awards
Sundance Film Festival – Midnight (USA)
Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Cleveland International Film Festival (USA)
Calgary Underground Film Festival, (Canada)
Milwaukee Film Festival (USA)
BIFAN Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Korea)
Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Switzerland)
Chattanooga Film Festival (USA)
Melbourne International Film Festival (Australia)
FrightFest London (UK)
Fantasia Film Festival Montréal (Canada)
HÕFF Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival (Estonia)
Lost Weekend Film Festival (USA)
Loudoun Arts Film Festival (USA)
Sitges
Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival
International Horror Film Festival of Molins de Rei (Barcelona)
TerrorMolins De Rei Festival - Best Direction, Best Script, Best Leading Actress, Special Mention
Isla Calavera - Best Director
Sales & Distribution
Australia & New Zealand: Monster Pictures
International Sales: MPI Pictures
“Ashcroft and his cast — and especially Gillies as the menacing and charismatic Mandrake — excel at drawing out the moment-to-moment tension of a crime in progress.”
– Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 2021