‘Await Further Instructions,’ a creepy 2018 science-fiction horror drama film directed by the late Johnny Kevorkian, has an unusual premise. The cast includes Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Grant Masters, Kris Saddler, Holly Weston, Abigail Cruttenden, and David Bradley. Naik won Best Actress at the C-Fem Fantastic Film Festival Murcia in Spain.
The story centers around an alienated British working-class family reuniting for Christmas after a long separation. Nick, the protagonist, accompanies his lover Annji to the event, where she is not well received because of her dark coloring.
However, it is the least of their troubles, as the family is confined in the house as a result of the deeds of a mysterious, malicious creature who communicates with them all through the television. What is the worst-case scenario? Using technology, there is no way to leave the house or contact anyone. The Milgrams have no choice but to ‘await further orders from their television. And, with their lives on the line, they must do exactly what is requested of them.
Kevorkian was a British filmmaker who died in November 2020 after suffering a heart attack. He was the driving force behind the production of two indie horror films, ‘The Disappeared’ from 2008 and ‘Await Further Instructions’ from 2018. Although ‘The Disappeared’ did not do as well as ‘Await Further Instructions,’ it was a pivotal milestone in Kevorkian’s career, since it helped him establish himself as an indie horror filmmaker.
He returned to filmmaking ten years later with ‘Await Further Instructions,’ which received a lot of excitement at film festivals for a variety of reasons. Not only did he make a conceptually unique premise work, but it also shed light on traditional family conservatism, which is troublesome for people of color, as well as man’s doom due to technology.
Or maybe it is one of those times when you remember how the author claimed the curtains were blue without a reason, while your literary teacher went into great detail about the color blue’s symbolism and how it ties to the author’s melancholy. But, as we will see later in the video, Kevorkian leaves enough hints in his film for the symbolism to be deliberate.
Continue viewing this video if you want to learn more about the film and its horrific creature. Do not forget to like and subscribe to Marvelous Videos as well. To stay up to date with the newest and enjoy getting the specifics of more and more terrible villains and animals on a regular basis, press the bell symbol to receive a notification every time we release a video.
A God Or Just A God Complex?
As the movie begins, the audience is subjected to a phrase: ‘It’s the things you love that kill you’. Don’t particularly recall anyone loving global warming or being afraid of getting killed by horror movies, but that’s some deep stuff.
Nick Milgram (played by Sam Gittins) did not like his father Tony (played by Grant Masters) so he used to live away. One Christmas, he arrives at the Milgram’s residency on Stanford Street with his girlfriend Anji (played by Neerja Naik), who is a nurse.
This is an interesting detail as Kevorkian alludes to the famous psychological experiments – The Stanford Prison Experiment and The Milgram Experiment here. The latter tested obedience to authority, which is something the characters must do throughout the film. The Stanford Experiment also deals with similar themes with reference to authority.
The movie exposes an unsettling tension between Nick and Tony quite early into the plot before things can even progress. The family issues do not end there. There was tension between Nick and his brother Scott (played by Kris Saddler) as well. His wife Kate (played by Holly Weston) is shown to be pregnant.
David Bradley also appears in the movie as Nick’s grandfather and once again, he does not look like the warmest and most welcoming grandfather. Bradley almost always plays characters where he is hated – Argus Filch in Harry Potter and Walder Frey in Game of Thrones. The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree here as he is still very annoying but thankfully, does not ruin anyone’s plans.
There had been a terrorist attack alongside some issues with the electricity, but no one expected it to be connected to some weird, mysterious, probable extraterrestrial situation. Annji kept getting racist comments and Nick resolved to leave the Milgram’s residency first thing in the morning.
As they try to leave, they find a black barrier blocking their way. Not just this door but the windows, backdoor, and the basement were all blocked. Naturally, everyone freaks out and they turn on the TV when they discover the message, ‘Stay Indoors and Await Further Instructions. In some ways, this is similar to this one episode in Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense called ‘Child’s Play’, where one morning, the family wakes up to a strange barrier blocking all the windows and doors in the house.
Nick’s annoying father Tony decides that they should enjoy their Christmas meal as if nothing has happened and they proceed to conveniently ignore the problem at hand. But right before they eat, a new message flashes on the television – ‘All Your Food Is Contaminated. Eat Nothing’. Tony, without consulting anyone, discards all the food, which Nick is quite displeased about. Scott butts into the argument and sides with Tony.
But Tony had his fair share of daddy issues. Don’t forget that David Bradley plays his father, of course, the character is a s***bag. Tony just wanted his father’s approval and what better way to do it than being another s***bag? Scott followed the trail as well. Another message pops up – ‘Decontaminate Yourselves. Strip And Scrub All Flesh With Household Bleach’. An entity that cares about hygiene? We are stan!
No one is particularly happy about using bleach on themselves. A bag full of hypodermic needles makes its way to the Milgram’s (Christmas present?) and the television message changes to ‘Use Trial Vaccinations. Atmosphere Contaminated’. Annji worked in the hospital and realizes that the injections had been used but Tony is stubborn and has a super inflated sense of self, so he forces everyone to take the vaccine.
Tony’s father begins to vomit a black liquid and dies when the television reads, ‘Vaccination Procedure Complete. Return All Clinical Apparatus Via The Access Slot’. Looks like Santa wants his gift leftovers back. Still, an easier death compared to the time Arya Stark slit his throat after feeding Walder Frey his children.
Annji guesses that they were being monitored while Scott returns the leftovers. He gets curious and tries to pull apart the barrier but a new message flashes on the screen – ‘Access Slot Contamination’. The barrier snaps shut and severs three of his fingers. A while later, another message makes its way to the – “One Of Your Number Is Infected. Isolate Them”. Of course, they assume it is Annji carrying a virus from India and they lock her upstairs with Grandad’s dead body. This movie low-key predicted what COVID-19 was going to be like. It’s almost like a manifestation.
Nick gets desperate and unplugs the TV against Tony’s wishes, who quickly plug it back in because he was following the television like a holy grail. Might as well follow a TV show, but one that wasn’t being aired anymore. A message flashes up with strange symbols that read: ‘Warning. Interrupting Emergency Signal Puts Lives At Risk’.
Kate and Scott begin to fight Nick out of anger, but Scott’s hit lands on Kate and she falls down the stairs. She breaks her leg and Scott blanks out because Kate was pregnant. The television screen reads, ‘I See You’, almost as if it was taunting them.
Nick tries to look for an escape route and uses his phone’s camera to see what it was like outside. A new message pops up – ‘Danger Exfiltration In Progress. Survivors Must Not Breach Perimeter’. The movie might as well be a Black Mirror episode at this point. Meanwhile, Nick sees the footage of some tentacles attacking and growling. Time for some heavy metal!
Tony and Scott knock Nick unconscious and proceed to follow the next instruction – ‘Extract Information From Sleeper Agent’. He uses a retractable knife to torture Nick, making himself eligible for the ‘Father of the Year’ award. Beth enters the room and tells them that Kate has passed away.
Annji, quarantined in her room, fiddles with the cables in the barrier and the television upstairs. The television downstairs displays the message – ‘Security Breach First Floor’, ‘Activating Quarantine Bedroom 1’, and ‘Activating Quarantine Bedroom 2’. Black smoke enters the rooms through the vent pipes and the television asks all survivors to return to the living room. Nick frees Annji in desperation but fails to save Beth, who dies after exploding into a black liquid.
Nick and Annji notice a bright light on the screen and Nick proceeds to break the thing but suddenly, everything around him begins to move. A new message appears – ‘I Am Reborn. I Bring Salvation. Resurrection’. Tony thinks that the entity is God and asks for a sign, to which he sees Kate’s unborn baby move. The text ‘Ruby’ flashes on the screen. It wanted everyone to follow and worship him.
Annji decides to operate on Kate to save the child who was still alive. Scott agrees but the TV comes up with a new instruction – ‘Make A Sacrifice To Save The Unborn’. To no one’s surprise, Tony tries to kill Annji, infuriating Nick, who goes on a rampage. Scott tries to subdue Nick but Tony’s axe hits Scott instead of Nick, killing him. Scott ends up as the sacrificial lamb.
Annji knocks Tony out and Nick breaks the TV on his head, killing him. Smoke begins to come out of the now broken screen and wire-like tentacles that made up the barrier coming out of the system, taking over Tony as if it was a parasite while he was the host. It asks them to worship it but Nick attacks it, causing an explosion. Things cool down for a second until the entity comes back and kills them. It then drains Kate’s body, digesting her.
This leaves behind nothing but her skeleton and her baby. Tony brings another television which reads, ‘Helly Ruby. Worship Me. The last shot shows a panned-out view of the locality, where the creature has taken over every house.
No matter how horrifying a horror movie is, real horror lies in reality itself. Kevorkian uses that factor as a dominating theme in ‘Await Further Instructions’, as he shows issues such as hyper-nationalism, blind faith, and xenophobia in the movie. After getting locked in the house with a woman with brown skin, the Milgrams gradually become more and more unhinged with their xenophobia. This is not very different from what happened following the outbreak of COVID-19 when the world collectively discriminated against East Asians.
Kevorkian also shows Tony to be a fanatic. Not only is he narrow-minded but he is also desperate to prove himself to an authoritative figure. At first, it was his father, who wasn’t the model human being either, and later it became the entity, who Tony was willing to worship. Maybe because his own father treated him like absolute trash, Tony went on to become a bigger piece of garbage and Scott was almost going down the same path but he ended up dead.
The movie is kind of similar to the stuff you’d see in ‘Black Mirror’, even though it has nothing to do with technological advancement. ‘Await Further Instructions’ has the cast consumed by technology as Tony follows its instructions as a fanatic. Similarly, ‘Black Mirror’ has its characters succumbing to ever-growing technological progress which ultimately leads to their demise. And Kevorkian has done quite the job in blending all such factors together, to create an electrifying horror experience with a galore of symbolism.
At this rate, horror movies will take over the literature syllabus.
What Was The Creature In ‘Await Further Instructions?
The creature in the movie is kind of ambiguous. It does not have a monstrous physical form like you would see in superhero movies or other horror movies and instead, it exists in the form of technology and its electronic cables. It forms the barriers that prevent people from leaving, it forms the insides of the television, and it pulls all the strings in the story.
It presents itself as some sort of a God but it isn’t. It is probably a parasitic alien from a different planet that requires a cult to survive. Earth is an easy target because cult followings and fanaticism are quite common in the world. Even celebrities have followings big enough to go head-to-head with some religions.
This can stem from two possible scenarios: The thing has already amassed a cult-like following in its home and other planets and has now moved to Earth to broaden its empire. The other, more interesting scenario is the one where the entity does not have a following because there are no life forms to follow it, except the humans on Earth. The malleability of the human psyche only makes things easier for it.
However, in one particular scene where Nick uses his smartphone to see what is happening outside, he sees tentacles that were growling and attacking his smartphone, which means that even though its entire presence is kind of symbolic throughout the movie, it does have a form. That form is what makes up the barrier and the television.
The infiltration is real. There’s also that one scene where it dismembered Scott’s fingers, signifying that it had quite an offensive range with either sharp weapons or sharp body parts. As it kept track of the residents and had a prime objective, it was clearly quite intelligent.
It probably knew that humans can be subdued by religion or by pretending to be a God, so that’s how it wrapped Tony around its fingers. The older generation is anyway more likely to be swayed by talk without questioning the motives of others, while their children follow their footsteps, as seen with Scott who was a diet version of Tony.
There’s also the generation that constantly breaks customs and paves a new path, which is seen in Nick. However, that does not mean that the newer generations are doing everything right. In fact, the newer generation has been consumed by technology, the internet, and social media.
They might not follow the instructions of the entity like the older generations, but that does not mean they are exempt from it. If anything, their obsession is why the entity considers the people on Earth to be a prime target in the first place.
Humans might be creatures who want freedom but they have always answered to an entity. Humans always feel the need to bow down to something, be it God or technology. They cannot exist without an order set by a higher power which is why they create hierarchies and governments. This is literally what Loki said in ‘Avengers’, when he tried to make the Germans kneel to him. Modern-day villains often make more sense than heroes.
The reason why Kevorkian used the wires and cables, is to personalize the creature which is a depiction of media. Electronics control the lives of people, similar to this God Complex entity. We, like people, have given the media way too much power over us. There’s a scene regarding the vaccines as Tony blindly follows the instruction of the television and makes everyone use the used needle. This is very real in today’s society as a lot of people have often expressed their qualms regarding vaccines.
In certain third-world countries, fake vaccines have in fact been used on people. Rather, if more people question the internal workings and components of a vaccine, the vaccine is more likely to be an effective and accurate one as defrauders cannot get away with scamming others anymore. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened here as Tony was desperate to exercise his authority over everyone.
This creates another problem. When too many people question the integrity of things, those who want to brainwash cannot execute their vile plans. Even though humans have often taken part in cult-like activities, the newer generations have been a lot more against it, and this has been adopted by some people from the older generations as well. This means that today, it is not as easy to blindly amass a following as it was a couple of decades ago.
This means, to subdue the future generations, you need to culture them in a world where submission is all they have ever known. This is what happens with Kate’s child Ruby whose first worldly experience is being asked to worship that entity and not her mother’s embrace. She might be too young to understand anything right now but she will grow up in an environment where the entity has taken over and worshipping it will be all that she knows.
The following the creature wants is also a glorified and overblown version of people on social media willing to go to extreme lengths for followers. They want likes, comments, and want to be fed with validation 24/7.
And even when they know that this is bad, they cannot help it because, after years of people chasing this, it has imprinted on the psyches of people. They cannot help but seek validation online. The internet runs the world now and the closing scene of ‘Await Further Instructions’ shows the thing has taken over each and every house in the locality. This probably means that it has taken over the world and will be killing the questioners. It will use its followers as a host as they did with Tony and brainwash the kids.
Why Should You Watch ‘Await Further Instructions’?
If you hate the characters, the actors are probably doing their job right. Everyone hated Skyler in ‘Breaking Bad’ as she was insufferable but it was only a testament to how incredible Anna Gunn’s performance was. Of course, the cast here did not touch Gunn’s level of acting but they fulfilled their purpose of being insufferable to the audience. It is really hard to like anyone apart from Nick and Anji. Well, maybe Beth but once again, she lacks a spine.
With the heavy symbolism present throughout the movie, there might be other things that you can catch when you watch the entire thing by yourself. These concepts are cool because everyone comes up with different observations, different theories, and different ideas. Watching this movie will help you form your own thoughts.
All the metaphors and other technicalities aside, the movie feels very ominous and often claustrophobic. Imagine being trapped with a terrible father, a pregnant sister-in-law, and a brother that is a junior version of your terrible father, all while not having any internet or phone signal. It is in fact a hell hole. And then add mysterious messages to the mix and you have a scenario that will give anyone the creeps. A solid way to experience the intensity of the horror is by imagining yourself in that situation. Always works. 10/10 recommended.