Into the Dark is a spectacular collaboration between Hulu and genre giant Blumhouse. It’s a horror anthology series that manages to visit most of the major holidays in a horrific fashion. Instead of most anthology series, though, the episodes are feature length. Giving us nine movies (so far) that give us a different perspective on being festive. For Father’s Day, we have They Come Knocking. Written by Shane and Carey Van D**e and directed by Adam Mason (who also directed the brilliant April Fools’ Day entry into the series I’m Just F*cking With You), They Come Knocking is a harrowing tale of grief, loss, and demon children with terrifying masks..uh…I mean faces? Mask Faces?
Nathan Singer (Clayne Crawford) is a widower, and single father left to care for his daughters after his wife’s death. One of his daughters, Maggie (Lia McHugh) is a young precocious child who is totally sympatico with her father. The other one, Clair (Josephine Langford), is a teenager, who wants nothing to do with anyone in her family. The three of them are on a road trip to spread Val’s ashes where Nathan proposed to her years ago. At first, we don’t know how she died but through a series of flashbacks, we find out she had cancer, and all the background to set the scene for the truly horrifying experience Nathan and his daughters have in store.
“The three of them are on a road trip to spread Val’s ashes where Nathan proposed to her years ago.”
Nathan proposed to Val (Robyn Lively) out in the middle of the desert, where there’s no phone signal, no other people, no nothing. The family has an Airstream trailer attached to their pickup truck, and that’s where they plan on staying during this ritual that’s happening a year after Val’s death. Clair travels in the airstream while driving, to stay away from her sister and father. Over time we figure out that she’s not just possessed by the usual teen angst, but that she and her mother had an argument right before Val became ill and Clair can’t seem to forgive herself for it.
