Review: Set thousands of years before civilization, ‘Out of Darkness’ is eons-old horror by the book

We don’t know much about prehistoric humankind, except for the idea that it wasn’t very human. Even paleontologists find the field’s accepted facts in constant revision based on new theories and an incomplete fossil record. Suffice to say, if it’s 45,000 years ago, as stated in the somber, enervating, occasionally ridiculous horror film “Out of Darkness,” you’re mainly looking for a warm cave to avoid cannibals. British director Andrew Cumming, making his feature debut, has taken a crew out to the Scottish Highlands — also where 1981’s “Quest for Fire” was shot — to capture what is essentially “Alien” or “The Blair Witch Project,” as a small group of terrorized characters gets picked off by an ominous, wailing creature in the fog-shrouded woods. Safia Oakley-Green finds a groove as Beyah, a tough survivor within the pack, which also includes a foolhardy leader, Adem, an unhelpful, panicky advisor and Adem’s untested son.