Await Further Instructions

Festive cheer is in shockingly short supply in this claustrophobic British thriller from director Johnny Kevorkian (The Disappeared). Things don't begin well for estranged son Nick (Sam Gittins) and his Indian girlfriend on arriving at his suburban family home, as they get short shrift from Nick's buttoned-up dad, his vile racist granddad (played by Harry Potter regular David Bradley), pregnant Little Englander sister and her gormless fiancé. Only Abigail Cruttenden's doting but brow-beaten mum is happy to see the couple. But when they awake on Christmas morning to find themselves sealed inside the house and the TV giving out curt commands, paranoia, prejudice and seething resentments rush to the surface, gleefully embraced by Bradley's awful OAP who has a ball spewing out bile and abuse. Is it a pandemic, terrorism, a nuclear attack, an insidious government experiment or even a nasty joke that's behind their incarceration? Kevorkian skilfully teases out the answer to this dire domestic disturbance, while his confined characters vent on such post-Brexit issues as immigration, race, religion and power. However, the reactions to their pressure-cooker situation mean you are never far away from more horrific consequences.