What are our most primal fears? And how do they relate to real-world threats? These are intriguing questions for the horror genre, so it’s surprising that the stone age has more often been a setting for comedy (Year One, The Flintstones) or fantasy adventure (One Million Years BC). There are no grunting, club-wielding cavemen in British director Andrew Cumming’s first-time feature about a band of Palaeolithic humans venturing into strange lands in search of a new home. Instead, it establishes a plausible and immersive version of life 45,000 years ago – complete with an invented and subtitled language – then makes dramatic use of nightfall for its most thrilling action sequences. Proof that even the most basic cinematic tools can be used to make fire.
What are our most primal fears? And how do they relate to real-world threats? These are intriguing questions for the horror genre, so it’s surprising that the stone age has more often been a setting for comedy (Year One, The Flintstones) or fantasy adventure (One Million Years BC). There are no grunting, club-wielding cavemen in British director Andrew Cumming’s first-time feature about a band of Palaeolithic humans venturing into strange lands in search of a new home. Instead, it establishes a plausible and immersive version of life 45,000 years ago – complete with an invented and subtitled language – then makes dramatic use of nightfall for its most thrilling action sequences. Proof that even the most basic cinematic tools can be used to make fire.