10 Horror Movies Loved By Critics But Hated By Audiences
9. Coming Home In The Dark
Based on a 1995 short story of the same name, Coming Home In The Dark is the 2021 debut of director James Ashcroft. Here we find our protagonist couple Alan and Jill hiking with her two teenage sons. Two bizarre drifters, Mandrake and Tubs, confront the family at gunpoint. Mandrake kills the two boys and takes the couple hostage.
We come to find that this was not a chance encounter. The drifters were once residents in a school for troubled boys where Alan was a teacher's assistant. During this time, Mandrake and Tubs were abused by the staff of the school. Despite initial denials, Alan admits that he knew of the abuse but did nothing.
Jill, now stunned by this revelation, manages to escape her captors and the audience by jumping into a nearby river; thus ending her part of the tale. Tubs, who served as an obedient man-child to Mandrake, shoots not the captive but his buddy Mandrake, stating "I hate this place" before leaving Alan alone at the end.
Critics believed the performances and script were strong enough to warrant a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Society at large wasn't convinced, offering Coming Home In The Dark only 44%.