Atmospheric survival horror set in the Stone Age.
A small group is led by their patriarch to an island in search good hunting grounds, only to find it bare. Hanging on by a thread, their tiny campfire flickering in the vast sea of darkness, something begins to move in the shadows.
What I really liked about this film was the interesting choices that went into it. Like, yeah, it’s standard ‘There’s Something In The Woods” kinda fare, but it really tries to flesh out a world from 45,000 years ago. Sometimes with period stuff, it’s just set dressing, and it ends up just Hollyoaks in stupid clothes. But with this, it’s entirely spoken in its own language, one created out of Basque, Arabic and Sanskrit to sound ancient. Which is almost a weird level of effort to go to for a small budget horror. Not many people elect to make a horror movie completely in a fictional language that requires English subtitles.
And the costume is designed off of Inuit clothing, because where it’s set is clearly freezing (it’s shot here in the Highlands). There’s clearly been thought put into what kind of culture these people have, and you get little glimpses of that through the jewellery they wear or the carvings on their spears or the markings on their faces. There is a sense of a world here. And you really appreciate it when watching the film, because this could so easily have been low-budget shakycam with your pals in the woods, running around in Ugg boots, but The Origin really feels like it’s taken you somewhere.
Strong addition to the genre, has that pressed in on all sides by an unknown foe feeling you get in things like The Ritual and Bone Tomahawk.