Horror is often at its best when it is being used for the purpose of social commentary - and that certainly seems to be the case with recent British film Await Further Instructions, which utilises the genre to reflect on the emboldened racism and paranoia that has emerged in the UK in the aftermath of the Brexit vote; it is also a commentary on our increasing willingness to accept the vision of the world which is communicated to us through mass media; however, on both counts Await Further Instructions takes an unsubtle and heavy-handed approach, which at times come across as patronising to its viewers; it also tends to reproduce the same divisory politics it criticises, relying on the well-worn and problematic trope that being British and working class means that, by default, you are racist - a trope often deployed by the British liberal middle classes to redirect attention away from their more subtle - but structurally more insidious - racism.
I include the film here because, like yesterday’s Housewife, Await Further Instructions also includes an apocalyptic - and seemingly Lovecraftian - ending. Whilst a better movie than Housewife, and despite the Lovecraftian elements in its final act, Await Further Instructions is not a strong recommend.
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