| Until the Light Takes Us | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell |
| Produced by | Audrey Ewell & Aaron Aites |
| Distributed by | Variance Films |
| Release date(s) | December 4, 2009 |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Until the Light Takes Us is a 2009 feature documentary about Norwegian black metal, from directors Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell.
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The film received a 54% rating at Metacritic[2] and a 45% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[3] Andrew O'Hehir of Salon Magazine called the film "crafty and compelling",[4] Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice said, "The filmmakers seem cowed into obeisance by their subjects. Varg's last onscreen appearance is accompanied by a montage fitting a schoolyard crush, and the film's title is the translation of Burzum's fourth album, Hvis lyset tar oss. ... [the film] arrives a decade too late to add much."[5] Mike Hale of The New York Times said the "absorbing, low-key documentary ... illustrates the Norwegian context — cold and dark, liberal but ultra-conformist, increasingly globalized — in which these diffident, smart, polite young men came to feel alienated and racially and culturally oppressed."[6]
Variance Films acquired the theatrical rights to the film in the U.S., and released it in New York City on December 4, 2009.[3] The film grossed $7,246 on a single screen its first week, the second highest per-screen gross of any debuting film (behind Up In The Air).