AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS: “Worship Me” Sounds A Lot Like “All Hail The New Flesh”
Johnny Kevorkian‘s Await Further Instructions is many things, but subtle is not one of them. The film wears its social views on its sleeve from its opening sequence, dripping in influence from Stanley Kubrick and The Shining, to its final shot, an infant child, another Kubrick homage, this time 2001: A Space Odyssey. While there is undeniable prowess in the film’s development of suspense and tension, especially given its obvious budget constraints, Await Further Instructions provides little to nothing new with regards to social commentary or political insight.
Stuck Inside and the T.V. Is Telling Us What to Do
The film follows a narrative structure seen in numerous films. A group of characters is locked in a room by unknown forces. A gradual chaos ensues, and the metaphorical monsters on the inside end up being worse than the actual monsters on the outside. From “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” a timeless 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone, to Frank Darabont‘s 2007 adaptation of Stephen King‘s novella The Mist, to Josh Malerman‘s stellar 2014 novel Bird Box, the trope has been deployed numerous times in various cultural forms.
This time we are presented with the story of a British family in what appears to be the present day. An estranged son, Nick, returns home for Christmas to his parents, Beth and Tony. His new girlfriend, Annji, accompanies him. Nick’s sister, Kate, her husband, Scott, and Nick’s grandfather are present as well. Tensions are high immediately, as Beth greets Annji, who is Indian, with a skeptical distance that intensifies into outright racism and sexism from Tony and Nick’s grandfather over the course of the film.
With this potential for conflict established, the screenwriter, Gavin Williams, locks the characters inside the house overnight with a black, chord-like membrane that seems to bear a level of sentience. The only contact with the outside world comes from the eerie green light on the television that tells the inhabitants to “await further instructions.” They agree to do so, but all is clearly not well for this family on Christmas.
Tensions Rise
As one might expect, the characters respond with a discontent that only becomes more volatile as the television’s messages become more sinister and paranoia-inducing, eventually leading the group into a state of violent entropy that leaves none unscathed. The film does an excellent job of building tension and intensifying suspicion as each character’s individual psyché begins to crumble. They respond with different coping mechanisms; most of which involve racist isolation tactics and just straight up torture. Accordingly, the only ones that remain remotely sympathetic are Nick and Annji, two apparently educated and politically informed citizens. Again, the film is not particularly subtle.
Regardless, Await Further Instructions feels like a Stanley Kubrick and/or a David Cronenberg homage-piece at best, and an unoriginal ripoff at worst. The latter tackled themes of technological dependence and its potentially horrific effects on both the human psyché and body in Videodrome over thirty years ago. While that film lacks the familial core that propels the conflict in Await Further Instructions, it essentially captures the same ethos: we are utterly dependent on technology, and it will eventually gain sentience and either enslave us or kill us. One can either “worship me, or face extinction,” as the film’s tentacled monster tells Nick late in the film.
Await Further Instructions: Conclusion
While the film possesses a level of craft and passion that cannot be ignored, Await Further Instructions is missing something vital: originality. This is not to say that the film is not topical or relevant in today’s political climate, far from it. Rather, I am hesitant to recommend it based on preferring Cronenberg’s old new flesh more than Kevorkian’s new tentacled techno-monster.
What do you think of Await Further Instructions‘ Cronenberg/Kubrick influences, and how do we reconcile it with its rather heavy-handed political commentary?
Await Further Instructions was released on October 5, 2018.
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