Review of It Comes at Night (2017) by Briana I — 07 Jun 2017

Trey Edward Shults's great little debut feature, Krisha, got no attention when it came out last year. A24's marketing push has been vastly larger this time with It Comes at Night with hopes to capitalize on its genre, and I'm curious to see how audiences respond to it.

This is a very good film, but it's barely a horror film in my eyes. If anything, it's a psychological thriller that works like a fever dream in a post-apocalyptic setting, making use of its ambiguity and dramatic core.

With its languid pacing and strong performances to compliment the minimalist characterization, it's an engulfing--if at times too distant--domestic drama about protection and loss. In a house in an unspecified forest during an unspecified post-apocalyptic time lives Paul (Joel Edgerton), father to Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.

) and husband to Sarah (Carmen Ejogo). They only go outside when necessary for the gathering of food and water and wear gas masks and gloves whenever doing so, and they never go out after dark. One day, Paul and Travis come across a wounded man named Will (Christopher Abbott) and somewhat reluctantly take him in along with his wife Kim (Riley Keough) and toddler son Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner).

Slowly but surely, Paul's protective instincts turn into paranoia targeted against the other family while Travis begins to experience nightmares, and the two families begin to pit themselves against each other.

Shults's talents that were make clear in his previous film are carried over to this one, albeit in a different context. The more refined domestic setting of Krisha finds its rugged step-sibling in It Comes at Night with the soft, often dark lighting providing much of the mood, sometimes along with an effective and ambient, pulsating score.

Edgerton, who also acted as an executive producer, plays the part of the patriarch well. The character's brutality at times is very clearly a sort of expression of fear and defense that the others wear on their sleeves, and Shults script along with the performances do a very good job at making all of the characters sympathetic, even if they may feel a bit one-note at times.

That sense of caring about both parties involved makes the tension more impactful, and when the shadows fade to blackness and the camera does repetitive circular pans as more and more people enter a scene, the line between clarity and insanity becomes more and more blurred until reaching some emotional resonance.

The reason the movie doesn't particularly excel for me is due to Shults's handling of the movie's ambiguity, which he sometimes seems to overplay. Whereas it should be very clear that what isn't understood shouldn't and can't be understood, there are some moments in It Comes at Night that feel like Shults holding his cards a bit too close to the vest until they're just completely under his shirt.

This sense of distance also makes some characters seem a little too simplified, namely those of Ejogo and Abbott, and while the languid pacing largely works, it does trip up once or twice. Nevertheless, It Comes at Night is a cut above most horror films as of late not just because it isn't so much a horror film as it is a scary drama, but also because of its craftsmanship.

Drew Daniels's cinematography makes for a thoroughly appealing film from a visual sense, and the supporting players--namely Keough--ramp up the humanity when the script falls short. It won't be everyone's cup of tea and I didn't find it to be perfect, but when the end arrives, it becomes clear that Shults achieved what he set out to do.

8/10, really good, B+, definitely above average, etc.