Await Further Instructions (2018)

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

Director:

Johnny Kevorkian

Writer:

Gavin Williams

Stars:

Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Abigail Cruttenden

5 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Sam Gittins	...	Nick
Neerja Naik	...	Annji
Abigail Cruttenden	...	Beth
David Bradley	...	Grandad
Grant Masters	...	Tony
Holly Weston	...	Kate
Kris Saddler	...	Scott

Storyline

It's Christmas Day and the Milgram family wake to find a mysterious black substance surrounding their house. Something monumental is clearly happening right outside their door, but what exactly - an industrial accident, a terrorist attack, nuclear war? Descending into terrified arguments, they turn on the television, desperate for any information. On screen a message glows ominously: 'Stay Indoors and Await Further Instructions'. As the television exerts an ever more sinister grip, their paranoia escalates into bloody carnage.

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Plot Keywords:

family relationship | one place scenario | male objectification | fight | pregnant | 

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Taglines:

Contain. Corrupt. Control.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official production company

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Await Further Instructions

Filming Locations:

Hemingbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,823

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goldfinch, Premiere Picture, Shudder Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The surname of the family, Milgram, refers go the Milgram test of obediance to authority, a theme dominant throughout the film. It is also revealed that the family resides on Stanford street, a reference to the Stanford Prison experiment which studied similar themes of perceived power and authority.

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Goofs

At dinner, Annji sits next to Scott. When she comments that he might be infected, he is wearing a black t-shirt, but when he responds he has a large red napkin covering his shirt.

User Reviews

Corrupt control

'Await Further Instructions' did have much going for it. The premise was one of the best for any film seen recently (pretty bold and creative for low-budget), there were some really interesting ideas, the cover was so attention-grabbing and it looked great. So there was a lot of promise, this was hardly and a long way from being a film that was doomed from the start.

Did 'Await Further Instructions' live up to the potential it had? Not quite. Did it waste it? No. For me 'Await Further Instructions' was one of those difficult to rate and review films due to not being sure what my thoughts are between liking/loving or disliking/hating it. If needing to choose, my opinion would be somewhere in between and being neither extreme. It is a wildly uneven film, but did find myself appreciating what it tried to do and the effort that was put into it, because 'Await Further Instructions' was not one of those non-trying films (a try-too-harder actually).

There are good things. For low-budget it looks pretty good, there is a great moody atmosphere, stylish photography, editing that is actually coherent and far from shoe-string-looking production design. The haunting moodiness is also present in the music score, which didn't feel intrusive or obvious.

Found the acting better than average on the most part, with good performances from Sam Gittins and David Bradley. 'Await Further Instructions' started off very well, it does have tension and suspense and the mystery element intrigued and compelled. The direction has assurance generally before losing control a bit later on.

However, there are exceptions to the acting and they are Holly Weston and Neerja Naik, both try too hard and irritate. It is largely to do with the characters themselves, their characters coming off worst in a film full of indecisive and not always logical character writing which makes the characters not as easy to endear to as needed. The writing is uneven, sometimes thought-provoking and at other times very corny and rushed.

It is a shame that some of the second half didn't live up to the standard set by the first. The tension, suspense and creepiness isn't as strong and things become predictable, silly and contrived with some suspend disbelief parts and a mess of too many ideas not explored enough or gelling together. The ending is sadly one that ends on a whimper than a bang and the lack of polish in the effects does stick out like a sore thumb (sure there have been far worse in film history, but it was obvious that the writing and effects weren't paid much attention to).

Overall, very mixed here but appreciated the effort. 5/10 Bethany Cox