Review of It Comes at Night (2017) by Kristofer H — 01 Jun 2017

Proper Perspective: Equal parts simple and cerebral, this is a movie that will leave you thinking for a while after leaving the theater or ponder why you went to see it in the first place. Let's talk about It Comes at Night...

Official Synopsis: Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, a man has established a tenuous domestic order with his wife and son, but this will soon be put to test when a desperate young family arrives seeking refuge.

Plot: A family of three, sheltered and fortified in their forest home has to face the challenges of a mystery that lies outside their front door and a mysterious family that shows up at it.

Take: I really enjoyed this film. I enjoyed the tension, the acting, the simplicity of the story without force feeding exposition to explain everything, and I especially enjoyed Joel Edgerton's beard.

For the most part this movie follows the three person family of Paul (Joel Edgerton), Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). They live a simple life, with rules, out in the forest as a mysterious something has caused them to board up their home, never go out at night, and wear gas masks regularly. A man breaks into their home, Will (Christopher Abbott) in an attempt to help his family, Kim (Riley Keough) and Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner) looking for shelter and food.

Beyond that, I am not going to talk any more about the movie itself. The mystery lies in the plot and how it unravels and the mystery that has everyone in a panic.

This is another film produced by A24 (Room, Moonlight, Ex Machina) continuing to show their ability to find unique stories and deliver quality movies. Written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, his first fairly wide release film. He built tension and has a style that bounces between hand held cam work and steady camera work that worked well in this film. I am interested to see what he does next.

Edgerton (The Gift, Black Warrior) continues to showcase that he is one of the better overall working actors today. This won't be the movie to do so, but he will have trophies on his mantel soon enough.

Recommendation: For a 97 minute thriller with some horror elements, good acting, and a tight script this is a very good film. If it is showing in your area I'd recommend checking it out in theaters. For suspense/thrillers this is a notch below Get Out and Split, but in that same conversation this year.

Where was the post credit scene connecting this to 28 Days Later! Everything is a cinematic universe these days, dag nabbit!