They Wait In The Dark (2022) Review

Amy (Sarah McGuire) is on the run with her son Adrian (Patrick McGee), trying to stay one step ahead of ex-partner Judith (Laurie Catherine Winkel). Heading back to the rural home left to her by her grandparents, Amy awkwardly checks in with childhood friend and local diner waitress Jenny (Paige Maria) before hunkering down in the homestead. With Judith edging ever closer and a mysterious presence in the house becoming an ever growing threat, Amy will have to confront the dark events in her history if she and Adrian are to survive…

Writer/director Patrick Rea, who also helmed werewolf thriller- and FrightFest 2020 title – I Am Lisa, again focuses on strong, detailed female protagonists in conflict and manages to transform his lowest budget to date into an engaging portrayal of motherhood and the inevitably of the past coming back to haunt you, both figuratively and literally in this case.

With a small cast and limited resources, there’s an emphasis on character building and story detail over blazing action, although that’s not to say the film doesn’t get down and dirty in terms of a grimy, bloody ruckus when it needs to. The unpolished scraps have a naturalistic quality to them and although the odd piece of fight choreography may feel a little clunky it’s pleasing that the film still goes for it with its own spirited indie gusto.

This could be described as something of a slow burn and yet there’s plenty of incident in Rea’s screenplay as we follow the parental drama of Amy and Adrian’s loving yet permanently troubled situation, Judith’s single minded pursuit of her ex and flashbacks to a gruesome occurrence and the abusive relationship between Amy and her mother, which is revisited at regular intervals and unwinds over the running time.

A weak link in the cast could ultimately wreck such an undertaking at this but all of the performances are very good indeed, from McGuire’s fragile, guarded, volatile Amy through to the excellent McGee, a young actor who acts with heart and strength and manages to completely avoid all of the usual traps that so many others have fallen into, resulting in their being labelled as The Annoying Kid In That Horror Movie. Adrian is an extremely sympathetic character, a thoroughly resilient kid and he’s the one you fear for more than anyone else.

Elsewhere, Maria is the sweet, loyal, unquestioning (well, generally unquestioning) best friend that we’d all like to have and Winkel is striking as the cold, driven Judith, given a memorable introduction via a sequence in which she asserts her badass credentials by making a leering, sexist trucker wish he’d never crossed her path. At this point, there’s an expectation that Judith may turn out to be a one-dimensional psycho but the initial hint that something else is propelling her quest is forever present even when she’s doing awful things in order to locate Amy.

As a matter of fact, that feeling of something else lurking below the surface is this movie’s motif, be it the shady apparitions which come to the house at night or that no one is quite who they seem. The final act supplies the final pieces of the jigsaw, the motives of all are revealed and my, it’s a grim twist which allows for the total re-evaluation of everything leading up to that point. From then, the resolution is something of a foregone conclusion (although I wasn’t entirely sure if there’d be one final plot turn) but it’s a satisfying one and there is a happy ending of an unconventional kind.

They Wait In The Dark is a lower key, intimate horror project that manages to deliver those decisive killer blows at just the right moments, not to mention making the maximum use of its evocative locations and capable cast. The precise pacing keeps the plot ticking along nicely and, wisely, the most shocking reveal is saved for last.

In a field which is often dominated by the films which shout the loudest and splash the most blood around, this goes about its business with an understated menace which lingers far longer than line ‘em up, hack ‘em down fare. If you’re in the mood to ditch those indestructible killers for a while in favour of confronting the everyday horror that is present in the behaviour of some of us, this should be the change of pace you’re looking for.

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