Await Further Instructions (2018) #508

 

A family gathering for the holidays where most of the family are unwelcoming and xenophobic and the smaller portion feels bullied and outcast for their lifestyle choices, is suddenly trapped together and unable to escape, with the only contact from outside of the house coming from text appear on the tv. This is the set up for “Await Further Instructions”, a cosmic horror about control and obedience, essentially an experiment being conducted by otherworldly entities.

Nick returns to his parents house after cutting off most contact from them for three years. His girlfriend Annji comes with him, and almost immediately the family gives their disapproval and racist thoughts about Annji, who is of Indian descent. After having a screaming argument with his pregnant sister, Nick decides that coming back was a mistake and insists they leave. When they try to do so, a weird, ribbed, black  material has blocked very aperture and window in the house. The black surface looks like black cords fused together creating a solid wall. The family then notices text on the tv that states “Stay inside and await further instructions”. Naturally the very controlling father Tony declares that it’s from the national emergency service, but is that who it’s really from?

First the family is told that all of the food in the house is contaminated and that they must wash themselves with bleach, they follow the instructions. When vaccines are dropped from the chimney, Nick and Annji have their doubts, but the ever controlling Tony forces them. Tony’s elderly father dies a gruesome death and the tv states that one of them is infected. Naturally the family suspects Annji, and they lock her away. Tensions and parinia run rampant as Nick and Tony clash, family members die, and the instructions become ever more demanding and violent.

With everyone dead, with Nick killing his father in self defense, the dead rise once more as Tony becomes a  meat puppet infused with the living wires. It’s a shocking end with an axe, and as the camera pans up, you see that every house has suffered the same fate.