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Await Further Instructions


Day 6

Await Further Instructions




A young man brings his new girlfriend from Indian descent home to his racially insensitive British family for Christmas. Deciding it was a mistake to come, they opt to leave early the next morning, but mysterious metallic like wires cover the house, making it impossible to escape. Things get even weirder when messages appear on the television telling them to throw out their food, clean themselves with bleach and await further instructions.

Right from the start I had my hesitations about the film as the dynamic between the family and the new girlfriend felt forced and unnecessary. It was at the point where hypodermic needles dropped from the chimney for the family to inject themselves with that I was checked out. The new girlfriend is suppose to be the voice of reason and points out that the needles are used and they have no idea what is inside them. Yet these characters inject themselves anyways because the mysterious television tells them to. Even after one of the characters dies from injecting themselves, they somehow rationalize it away and continue to follow the text on the screen.

The film Compliance made me rethink what a normal person would do in a dumb situation. This film tries to go down the same path of compliancy. Their last name is Milgram, which refers to the Milgram on obedience to authority figures. Also that they live on Stanford street, referencing the Stanford prison experiment. Simply mentioning these things makes the filmmakers think they can get away with dumb character decisions, but at the end of the day it's just a frustrating endeavour. Stupid decisions are made to advance conflict when there should be no conflict. It's literally an other worldly event happening and turning on each other is the last resort.

With the exception of one or two characters, all of them change their dynamics at will, with the son in law being the worst offender. There is a bit of social commentary on how television rots the minds of people and the third act goes in some weird directions, but the overall experience of Await for Further Instructions is an experiment in testing my patience.