Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Johnny Kevorkian
Starring: Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Abigail
Cruttenden, David Bradley, Holly Weston
In 1961, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of social experiments to determine how far the average person could be pushed by their obedience to authority. The human guinea pigs were tricked into believing that they had the power to administer electric shocks to fellow participants, and the results painted a damning picture of our blind obedience, with most of those taking part all too willing to inflict what they believed was physical pain on their fellow man.
The experiments have been dramatised several times over the last decade in films like 2010's Zenith and 2015's Experimenter, while others, like 2010's The Experiment and 2012's Compliance, have drawn heavily on the theme. Director Johnny Kevorkian's Await Further Instructions might be the first movie to appropriate Milgram's experiment to a sci-fi/horror setting.
When Nick and Annji attempt to leave at the crack of dawn, they find the
house has been sealed by a mysterious black, liquorice like substance that
no amount of physical force can break through. Turning on the TV, the
Milgrams are greeted with a message - "Await further instructions." The
subsequent "instructions" increasingly ask the assembled family to do things
they're uncomfortable with, though some are more comfortable following
orders than others.
In this manner, I suspect Await Further Instructions isn't
all too distanced from how a lot of British family gatherings will play out
this Christmas. The assembled characters may be largely stereotypes, but the
actors do enough to make them feel like real people, and their ideological
bickering initially makes for compelling viewing.
Await Further Instructions is on
Shudder UK now.