Survival. Something we all experience in our lives on various levels. A lot of us have it very easy, since we have homes and can pay bills to get heat and such in them. Then we have others who live on the streets or out in the woods, struggling to find supplies or shelter to survive. And one day we might all be in that type of situation if we’re unlucky.
Ladies and gentlemen… “It Comes at Night”.
The world has gone to shit. A mysterious threat has made it very hard to live out in the world. To keep himself and his family safe from this threat, a man (Joel Edgerton) has isolated himself and his family in a very secure house in the middle of nowhere. And we follow them as they try to survive. And I know what you’re thinking… sort of. And I want you to take your expectations, and throw them out of the fucking window. This is an unusual little horror plot, relying more on dread, paranoia, and slowly building tension rather than jumps and disturbing imagery. Sure, there is a little bit of disturbing imagery in the movie, but it’s not the focus on this. It’s a slowly burning psychological horror movie, and I thought it was very riveting. from the very first frame I started feeling a great sense of unease. Tense, bleak, dramatic, harrowing. Yeah, this is a great plot. Again, throw those expectations out… this is far from whatever you could imagine.
The characters here are layered, understandable in their motivations, likable, interesting, and I found myself caring about all of them. I’m not gonna go in-depth with all of them, as I feel they’re best experienced, since my explanation of them could ruin the interesting discoveries one might make about them. But I can at least say that every actor here (including people like Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) does a fantastic job, there is no weak link in the cast.
The score for the movie was composed by Brian McOmber and I think he did a great job. His score is dark, tense, eerie, and helped to create some truly uneasy and even kind of scary moments throughout the film. It’s truly one of those scores that helped elevate the movie.
This movie was written and directed by Trey Edward Shults and I think he did a fantastic job. His direction here is tight tense, and never lets the feeling of unease go away. He makes us feel the same kind of paranoia as the characters in this movie, and that makes it feel a whole lot more immersive. And the cinematography by Drew Daniels is stunning, and makes perfect use of light and darkness to make you feel uneasy and even scared at times. Don’t expect your typical kinds of scariness here, this is a wholly unique type of horror.
This movie has gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 88% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 78/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,2/10.
“It Comes at Night” is highly unusual, and I think it’s much better for it. It has a great plot, really good characters, fantastic performances, great music, and fantastic directing/cinematography. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “It Comes at Night” is a 9,86/10. So it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.
My review of “It Comes at Night” is now completed.
If you’re interested in watching the movie, then don’t watch any trailers. And like I said earlier… throw those expectations out.
TheMarckoguy 