IN the autumn of 1990, a local gun nut, armed to the teeth, went on a nearly 24-hour rampage in the small, picturesque New Zealand town of Aramoana.
The middle-age loner named David Gray (Matthew Sunderland) killed 13 people, including a cop and three children, before being cut down by police.
“Out of the Blue,” directed and co-written by Robert Sarkies, is a taut thriller based on the tragedy, which remains the most lethal mass killing in New Zealand history.
Sarkies avoids the genre’s conventional trappings and prefers instead to concentrate on the ways in which the people of Aramoana deal with the unfolding event.
Most moving is the bravery shown by an elderly woman, played by 74-year-old first-time actress Lois Lawn. Only in the final five minutes does “Out of the Blue” become weepy.
Running time: 103 minutes. Not rated (violence). At the IFC Center, Sixth Avenue and Third Street.