The Domestics is a 2018 horror/thriller about a terrifying post-apocalyptic world inhabited by gangs divided into deadly factions where a husband and wife race desperately across the countryside in search of safety.
I’ve always questioned the veracity of the bloody post-apocalyptic worlds in most movies that take on such stories, my perhaps misguided faith in humanity confident that those who do end up surviving in the wastelands would come together in unity rather than horror. But what do I know? And how entertaining would a movie about rebuilding be? Violence and gore are the draw in these harrowing films and in some small way, maybe a bit of inspiration. The latest in this heap is Mike P. Nelson‘s often effective take on the genre, a fast-paced nightmare with a few sharp twists and a clever script that make this a surprisingly unnerving watch.
Beginning with a government-sponsored carpet sweeping of the nation with bombers dropping a black cloud of deadly poison on the population, the Untied States is left in utter chaos where pockets of survivors either hide in hopes of coming out alive or join together in vicious gangs, such as the Plowers, Sheets, or Nailers, most hunting for women. Mark (Tyler Hoechlin) and Nina (Kate Bosworth) are a young couple with allegiance only to themselves, like many others, referred to as ‘Domestics’, struggling to find some normality in the madness. They are traveling across the country on the way to Milwaukee and her mother, though are constantly tracked by savages looking to make off with Nina and use her for sexual slavery. Meanwhile, an isolated DJ echoes on the radio the details of what lies in wait.
Remember that opening moment in John Milius‘ 1984 classic Red Dawn, when Russian parachutes come drifting from the sky over a midwestern public school? Fantastic stuff, and Nelson, who wrote the screenplay, embraces some of the same disturbing imagery with a phalanx of military airplanes blackening the daytime sky, dumping their ebony payloads on slack-jawed citizens. It’s a deeply troubling moment that sets the tone for much of what follows, where Mark and Nina, long living in the aftermath meet a host of horrors in their blood-soaked odyssey. There are no friends in this hell.
While Nelson is clearly working with a minimal budget, and perhaps can’t stretch his vision much beyond a local setting, what he manages to accomplish with what he’s got is nonetheless chilling. That’s mostly due to a solid script that balances well the stomach-turning fury of life on the run and the relationship between Mark and Nina, the pair in a perpetual state of emotional up and down. Yet that’s not all he has up his sleeve, with some well-earned turns in the expected that really deliver some impact, often absolutely terrifying.
Featuring a sensational effort from Lance Reddick as another desperate survivor and a seething Sonoya Mizuno as an empowered woman escaped from savages, The Domestics is a tough watch, with several gripping sequences that pull no punches, the violence grounded, gritty, and authentic. Sure, a few of the characters in the peripheral, like those who don the heads of dead animals as mask seem more akin to the hyper dark fantasies of more trendy modern horror, Nelson keeps most of this fresh, nearly all the horror earned. Just when it seems the movie is going to go way off the rails (such as a creepy game of Russian roulette), it finds its way back, ending up a solid bit of ghastly good times fans of the genre are sure to eat up.