I legitimately don’t know where to start with this film… I think the best and only way to go through it is to divide it up into two distinct parts: the first half (which consists of the exposition and the climax) and the second half (which consists of the denouement). The words of Ron Burgundy are the only things that come to mind when I attempt to describe this film: “well that escalated quickly”. And escalate it did, or perhaps skyrocket is a better term for it. Either way, I think it’s safe to say that Await Further Instructions (2018) bit off more than it could ultimately chew.

The first half of this film felt extremely relevant and topical, considering I watched it whilst in the midst of a Stage Four lockdown. As the characters discovered their entrapment in their quaint British suburban home, I myself sat in the very room that I have been more or less completely confined within for the past 3 weeks. We all embarked on a journey of quarantine and I thoroughly appreciated the parallels (despite the lack of conscious intention behind it). For this reason, I assumed that Await Further Instructions would progress into an interrogation of dysfunctional domestic family dynamics as they disintegrate even further as a result of extreme isolation and pressures of the unknown. I feel myself losing touch with my sanity sometimes as I continue to scan the same four walls of my bedroom day in and day out. So I was very excited to see a family’s collective psyche deteriorate into a pool of insecurities, paranoia and helplessness literally at the hands of their own confusion and desperation – because solidarity in numbers, right? Suffering loves company. Beyond that, I also really enjoyed the social commentary regarding people’s blind faith in the government. This film depicted the manipulation, deception and impact of a police/surveillance state in microcosm. If you thought the government had put you on extreme quarantine with no explanation and then asked you to inject yourself with an unsterilised needle, would you do it? We’d all like to say no but I would bet that a vast majority of us would concede purely due to uncertainty of an alternative – you either take the needle or you starve to death in your home. At what point do you part ways with Big Brother and put your trust solely in yourself? Some pretty heavy questions to be asking yourself during a horror-flick and I was there for it.

The first two-thirds of the movie did very well, I must admit. Johnny Kevorkian establishes the existing functional flaws inherent in the family immediately (most notably their blatant racist perceptions which could at times seem a bit too conspicuous and forced). You know from the get-go that this British family definitely does not reflect the Brady Bunch – there is a lot of mistrust, a lot of animosity and even more resentment. It verged on Freudian at times thanks to the severely hostile relationship between the father and the son and the grandfather and father (this family needed serious therapy because all of their issues ended up manifesting themselves in murderous tendencies and that just ruins Christmas). The setting lended itself well to the claustrophobic, overwhelming discomfort experienced by the family not only once they were trapped inside, but even when they were free to move in and out. The cluttered space, stuffy wallpaper and dark, cramped interior created a sense of entrapment before real drama was even injected into the diegesis. The camera shots also followed each character relatively closely, keeping them fixed within the frame and unable to escape the scrutiny of every other family member. So, technically and symbolically, Await Further Instructions presented the viewer with intense mystery combined with a situation many people know and dread: family Christmas reunions (I personally love my family and Christmas so I couldn’t relate fully here, but I’ve heard enough stories to know that this is so prevalent, it could almost be labelled as a kind of syndrome). The mundane mixed with the extraordinary. A great beginning for what I thought was going to be a psychological horror.

It did not in any way go as I had predicted, however. The second half of this film – the half I deem as completely distinct from the first due to its total incongruity with the beginning – was (in one word) whack. I am honestly still perplexed as to how it ended up where it did. Far from the psychological family horror that I had both anticipated and hoped for, it ended up within some surreal religio-alien realm. It’s like some extraterrestrial life-form got a hold of the Bible out there in space, did a thorough reading and then decided to create its own version of the Rapture on Earth for their own unidentifiable aims? It’s difficult to put into words. The material that was encapsulating the house turned out to be some form of impenetrable, sentient alien creature that could communicate with the family through televisions and explode human beings into a thousand little pieces in a matter of seconds (RIP the mum in this film, she definitely had the worst go of it). I don’t know about you, but I believe that something abstract and invisible is far more terrifying than an actual tangible ‘thing’ that physically kills you. I was far more impressed when I thought the real antagonist was the family itself and their personal flaws which would turn them all against each other. But unfortunately it all become far too ‘concrete’. And to make matters worse, the alien creature was constructed oh so poorly. It’s as if they forgot that they actually had a budget to abide by, only realised by the time they got to the concluding scenes and decided to just go with it anyway because they had already come so far. The wire-y alien creature literally looked like something from out of a Tim Burton film (I absolutely adore these films but only when the aesthetic is consistent throughout… this was so out of place and just really weird). Between stop-motion and a group of people just moving and contorting bendable wires, this creature looked awkward and cheap, least of all threatening and capable of world domination. Its insatiable desire for the unborn baby was also left unexplained – was it meant to be the next messiah? Ok sure, cool. But how is it going to survive if literally everyone else has been killed? And were they collecting all unborn children or just this ‘special’ one? Why does this all-powerful alien thing even need humans anyway? We’re clearly the weaker species! Just so many questions… I’m still so confused.

I say watch this film. It’s a wild ride and while I didn’t understand all of it, when I wasn’t enjoying its cinematographic and thematic choices, I was laughing. And that can only be a good thing, right? So wait no longer for the instructions – just watch it.