Await Further Instructions (2018)

directed by Johnny Kevorkian
UK
90 minutes
3.5 stars out of 5
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Halloween is over (supposedly) so it's time for Christmas movies. Don't come to Await Further Instructions looking for cheery huggy family love, though. Half of the horror in this comes from the sheer torture of bringing an Indian girlfriend home to a family who ranges from awkwardly, casually racist to slur-spewingly bigoted, and then getting physically trapped in the house with those people as they all unravel. I'd have liked there to have been more from the perspective of being the Indian girlfriend who has to come home to these awful people, but okay. 

One of the most interesting characters in all of this is the father, who is the utter stereotype of unfeeling British stiff-upper-lip patriarchy, and he's meant to be a little exaggerated, but he really isn't that exaggerated. He's the type who looks at impossible things and just goes "Well, this is nonsense." and concludes that it's best to sit tight, slowly dying, while the rescue crews (because they are all also British and intent on nobly saving their fellow countrymen) are surely on the way courtesy of an efficient and sympathetic government.

The basic summary of the situation the characters find themselves in is that a strange black material clamps down on all windows and doors to the outside of their house while messages on the television begin giving them instructions on what to do- usually things that put them in obvious danger, but they don't notice because they assume the messages are coming from "the proper authorities". Things like injecting each other with used syringes that drop down their chimney, scrubbing themselves with bleach, and ganging up on one another for funsies. It's pretty obvious to a viewer that these instructions are the work of an outside actor wanting to see how far people will go when they're scared and cornered- but who's doing it? This remains the question until the end. In addition to the social issues raised, there's a really excellent body horror component. I'm discussing thematic spoilers from here on, so be cautious and don't read further if you're planning on watching this.

This movie has one of the best depictions of an alien lifeform that I've seen in recent memory and I am so enthused about it. Why have arms and legs when you can have an uncountable number of thrashing, flailing, cable-like tentacles? Cilia city, baby! This lifeform is in total opposition to everything human, a polar opposite to all things soft and warm and fleshy, and it is there for one reason only: to be worshipped. It's going to take over the planet, no questions asked. I don't usually go in for endings this bleak, and I still kind of disliked how staunchly hopeless this ultimately was, but I very much enjoyed this depiction of an alien invasion and I loved the film as a whole.