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.
