By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The survival chiller that won a lot of buzz at Fantastic Fest will gain wider exposure next year.
Bleecker Street has announced that it has retitled director Andrew Cumming’s THE ORIGIN to OUT OF DARKNESS, and will release it exclusively to U.S. theaters February 9. Scripted by Ruth Greenberg, it stars Safia Oakley-Green (who won a Breakthrough Performance award at this past year’s British Independent Film Awards for this movie), Chuku Modu, Kit Young and Iola Evans. According to the official synopsis, OUT OF DARKNESS follows “a group of six who have struggled across the narrow sea to find a new home. They are starving, desperate, and living 45,000 years ago. First they must find shelter, and they strike out across the tundra wastes towards the distant mountains that promise the abundant caves they need to survive. But when night falls, anticipation turns to fear and doubt as they realize they are not alone. As relationships in the group fracture, the determination of one young woman reveals the terrible actions taken to survive.”
The PR further notes, “Adding to the film’s authenticity, OUT OF DARKNESS is shot on location in the Scottish Highlands with the use of a bespoke language called ‘Tola,’ which was developed specifically for the project by a linguist and an archaeologist.”