History Film / AwaitFurtherInstructions

An independent British horror film from 2018, this movie takes the classic British Christmas plot, mixes it generously with Film/NationalLampoonsChristmasVacation, sticks the result in a blender and turns it on ''high''.

Directed by Johnny Kevorkian, it's a typical working-class Christmas dinner in the [[MeaningfulName Milgram]] household in a nameless suburb in the UK. All the typical family dysfunction is on display: The bigoted grandfather, the harried father, the dutiful mother. His young adult son Nick is returning home after a long absence with his EMT girlfriend Annji. But just as things begin to heat up, an ominous clanking sound is heard outside. Opening the front door, their teenaged son finds... a dark, black membrane, impenetrable and cabled, with a breathing-pipe sticking out of the bottom. As soon as he makes this discovery, the family TV goes blank save for green teletype letters:

As the family argues exactly what the import of those instructions are - nuclear war? pandemic? - the instructions abruptly change, and a series of ever-more sinister messages appears. As things begin to escalate out of control, Nick tries to solve the mystery of what exactly is going on before they are all dead...

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: The rest of the family seems to have this towards Nick, claiming he thinks he's "better" than them when they're really the ones in the right and that he needs to learn to do as he's told when they tell him things.

Directed by Johnny Kevorkian, it's a typical working-class Christmas dinner in the [[MeaningfulName Milgram]] household in a nameless suburb in the UK. All the typical family dysfunction is on display: The bigoted grandfather, the harried father, the dutiful mother. His young adult son Nick is returning home after a long absence with a new Indian girlfriend (an EMT). But just as things begin to heat up, an ominous clanking sound is heard outside. Opening the front door, their teenaged son finds... a dark, black membrane, impenetrable and cabled, with a breathing-pipe sticking out of the bottom. As soon as he makes this discovery, the family TV goes blank save for green teletype letters:

* HopeSpot: It seems like Nick has dealt the thing a fatal blow. Hardly a minute later, however, it springs back to life, ensnares him and Angie before having Tony kill them.

* ParanoiaFuel: Waking up from a sound sleep to find that your house has been utterly locked down by an outside source while every channel on TV reads "STAY INDOORS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS" is rather bad already. Later events - such as [[spoiler: saying the food has been contaminated, that someone has been infected, and that one of them is actually a sleeper agent]] takes this up to eleven.

* ParanoiaFuel: Waking up from a sound sleep to find that your house has been utterly locked down by an outside source while every channel on TV reads "STAY INDOORS AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS" is rather bad already. Later events - such as [[spoiler: saying the food has been contaminated, that someone has been infected, and that one of them is actually a sleeper agent]] takes this UpToEleven.

* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: The rest of the family seems to have this towards Nick, claiming he thinks he's "better" than them when really they're the ones in the right and he needs to learn to do as he's told when they tell him things.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Kate, as shown by her claiming "tumult" is either a made-up or Indian word, and telling Annji off for even daring to try correcting Granddad's overt racism.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: PlayedForDrama, as we learn that Tony's nickname of "Squelcher" was the result of [[spoiler: his having wet the bed ''once'' when he was a child, because he was afraid of what Granddad would do to him if he went to the toilet after curfew. He was still beaten black and blue for wetting the bed, with Granddad telling him that "Real men can hold it."]]

* EmbarrassingNickname: The grandfather reveals the father's very early on: Squelcher. [[spoiler:It's because he wet the bed ''[[NeverLiveItDown once]]'' as a child, for which he was beaten black and blue.]]

* YouKnowImBlackRight: Kate pulls this shortly after meeting Annji, as she complains about "foreign cover doctors" before catching herself.

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Kate, as shown by her claiming "tumult" is either a made-up or Indian word, and telling Annji off for even daring to take offense at Granddad's overt racism.

* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Granddad is this PlayedForDrama, as he flatly calls Aanji a [[CountryMatters cunt]] at the dinner table, and when an apology is demanded from Nick he simply says a snide "Nah."

* WeAREStrugglingTogether: As Nick puts it towards the climax, "We've done this to ourselves."

* DownerEnding: The last shot of the movie shows [[spoiler:Every house in the area is overrun by the black alien [[PuppeteerParasite parasites]], and every house has glowing instructions on their TV screens...]]

* AbusiveParents: Tony is this to Nick, primarily because of Nick's refusal to blindly obey the instructions on the TV. Granddad, however, is ''far'' worse, being an unapologetic asshole to everyone (particularly Annji) including his own son, who he only ever refers to by his EmbarrassingNickname.
* AdultsAreUseless: An extreme example. Nick, the younger son, does most of the detective work and remains calm even as the adults are falling to pieces around him. [[spoiler:It's no coincidence that he gets the first look outside the membrane - and sees the alien PuppeteerParasite crawling over the side of the house.]]