Coming Home in the Dark(2021)
2021 · James Ashcroft · 93 min
A school teacher is forced to confront a brutal act from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters takes him and his family on a nightmare road-trip.
Crime · Horror · Thriller
5.7228 votes
TMDB score
5/5
Intensity
3/5
Gore
5/5
Stays with you
How Coming Home in the Dark scares
It opens with a sudden burst of violence and then settles into a long, tense drive where the dread just keeps building instead of letting up. There are no ghosts or monsters here, just cruel people and the terrible things ordinary humans are capable of doing to each other. The fear comes from feeling trapped and helpless, from not knowing what these people want or how far they'll go, more than from any single shocking moment. This is a heavy, grim watch that sits with you afterward rather than a fun scare you shake off on the way out of the room.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Coming Home in the Dark rates psychological 5/5, visceral 4/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 5/5, and overall intensity 5/5.
- Psychological: 5 of 5
- Visceral: 4 of 5
- Gore: 3 of 5
- Lingering: 5 of 5
- Intensity: 5 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 8 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 95 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 90 of 100 — leans Disturbing
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A quick, brutal jolt up front gives way to a long, sustained stretch of tense dread that barely lets up before a hard final push.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 4, 5, 4.
How scary is Coming Home in the Dark?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, Coming Home in the Dark rates 5/5 — one of the more punishing watches in the catalog, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. It works on both fronts, unsettling the mind while going for the body. Expect it to be moderately gory and genuinely disturbing. Expect it to stay with you for days.
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