Review of It Comes at Night (2017) by Dirigiblepulp — 06 Jul 2017

Fear. Dark thoughts and swelling anxiety. That's what. This is a bare bones stripped down locked-house tension potpoiler. Two families not sure they can trust the other, holding onto what humanity they have left, pretending they still care while the world rots around them.

This movie isn't as deep or revealing as it thinks it is, but it's transfixing. Beautiful darkly lit images, moving, sometimes dreamlike camerawork - in particular the slowly panning shot of the painting filled with demons while the camera pulls away to reveal the long dark hallway and the red door at its end. There isn't enough of this, or it's not illuminating enough. What little mystery there is doesn't come through as much as the film thinks it does - it's maybe not up to more than it is.

The final scene is a well finessed tension overload. You know what's coming but you can't help but dread its inevitable conclusion. The slowly shrinking aspect ratio adds heaps to the claustrophobia and the focus - I didn't notice it was happening until the scene was over but immediately understood its impact. Joel Edgerton does much with little as usual. He plays tough here, but lets his character have mannerisms and weaknesses that suggest that he's really just a man playing at it who doesn't know what he's doing.