A family’s outing descends into terror when teacher Alan Hoaganraad, his wife Jill and stepsons Maika and Jordon explore an isolated coastline. An unexpected meeting with a pair of drifters – the enigmatic psychopath Mandrake and his accomplice Tubs – thrusts the family into a nightmare after the duo kidnaps them and embarks on a road trip to hell.
For in-depth thoughts on Coming Home In The Dark, please see my colleague Mike Vaughn’s review from its theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Coming Home In The Dark debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original aspect ratio that looks quite great. The movie spends most of its latter half in some degree of darkness, which is aided by deep black levels that hold together without issue. Objects retain their detail in these instances and maintain their depth with banding only showing up in intermittent moments. The transfer provides a stellar amount of detail and clarity even in less ideal lighting. The movie itself has a natural color palette that renders very nicely on screen, especially when observing the glorious expanses of nature in the beginning. No damage or digital noise was detected that would detract from this transfer. MPI Media Group has treated this one with respect.
Audio Quality
The film comes to Blu-Ray with a rock solid DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that brings the sound design to life perfectly. Surround channels conjure a very distinct sense of spatial awareness with sounds emanating from all of their intended points. Dialogue and sound effects are balanced well with the score where nothing lacks in clarity. The movie utilizes creeping environmental sounds to add to the tension of the situation with a very immersive atmosphere. The low end is not consistently active, but it adds some notable heft to certain moments. This audio track leaves nothing to be desired. There are English SDH subtitles provided.
Special Features
- Behind The Scenes: A pretty solid 13-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss developing this film from the short story, adding in more weighty themes to help flesh it out, the process of casting the various roles, the experience of this as a first time director and more.
- Trailer: The two-minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
Coming Home In The Dark establishes its nihilistic tone early on with its unsparing violence and then descends only further into darkness. First-time feature director James Ashcroft crafts a well-paced tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat pretty consistently outside of a few bumpy stretches. The lead performance from Daniel Gillies is ice cold and charismatic in a way that feels like one of the great modern villains in indie horror. While the movie outside of him is pretty solid, his performance is the glue that holds it together so well. This one is well worth seeking out for horror fans looking for some dark thrills. MPI Media Group has released a Blu-Ray featuring a lovely A/V presentation but not too much in the way of special features. Recommended
Coming Home In The Dark is currently available to purchase on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: MPI Media Group has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
