It Comes At Night is a horror/suspense movie written and directed by Trey Edward Schults and stars Joel Edgerton as Paul and Christopher Abbot as Will. The film also stars Carmen Ejojo as Sarah and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Travis, Paul's wife and son. With a budget of 2.4 million dollars, it made only 19.3 million dollars back at the box office.
It Comes At Night was a movie I was looking forward to for a long time. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good virus movie. I had avoided all trailers going into the movie, which did pay off in the end. There was a lot of controversy with the movie's marketing after the movie had been released. Firstly they made an awesome, if not misleading poster. Just look at it. It raises questions and answers none, much like the movie. The film was billed by the marketing as a crazy, virus-caused outbreak thriller movie, which it definitely was not. I had heard mixed reactions from real critics after seeing that it wasn't strictly a horror movie. So, I put it on the back-burner and focused on other movies. Eventually I stumbled upon the while browsing Amazon Prime for a movie to review. Without any hesitation I decided to watch the movie, and it was a surprisingly enjoyable. However, its not without its flaws which I'll get into.
THE PLOT:
It Comes At Night is about a close-knit family lead by the strong-headed father, Paul, "living" out in the woods during an apparent viral outbreak. After a man is caught trying to break in their cabin, Paul must ask himself what he is willing to do for his family.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Despite coming from a relatively unknown and unproven director (to me), I found the film to be very enjoyable. For the past few years I've stuck to movies by directors or actors that I know, and I think I'll check out whatever Schults has planned next. The real highlight of this movie is Joel Edgerton as Paul. He's a strict, no-nonsense father that only wants what's best for his family. I buy Edgerton as a woodsy, all around tough guy. He's willing to make tough calls that would be hard in any situation. But he's not without mercy. My biggest gripe, at least initially, was with the actor playing Will. There was something about the way Abbot delivered his lines at first that felt wooden. However, as the movie progressed I grew to like Will. I wanted not only Paul and his family to survive, but for Will's to as well. I thought that Harrison Jr. as Travis was just.. fine as well. He ended up being another character that took time to grow on me. His character has the nightmares that were obviously overused in the trailers to mislead movie-goers.
The rest of the cast does just fine with their roles. There's nothing really to complain about, but they're rather unremarkable compared to Paul. They honestly don't even do much, except have nightmares and cause the inevitable falling out. Some of my biggest problems are with the story and some missed potential. There's an awkward scene with Travis and Will's wife Kim that felt unnecessary. At first I thought they'd call back to it after the families start having issues, but they never do. I thought there would be more bonding with the wives like they tried with the husbands, but they barely have any screen time (which I guess is fine, Paul was the best).
There also are major plot threads left open and up to interpretation. Now I don't think you have to answer every question raised and then wrap it up with a pretty bow at the end. Its fine to leave a film with more questions than answers, but with this I felt there was no pay-off. Not everything had to be answered, but if we had gotten a few more answers than we did, I feel like the movie would've benefited. We spend the entire film with Paul and his family, only to still ask what happened to Stanley? What was out in the woods? Who opened the door? Was Will lying about his brother? Almost nothing was answered except the bare essentials. Not a huge issue with me, but I know people who would hate it.
THE CINEMATOGRAPHY :
It Comes At Night is a beautifully shot film. While it doesn't have many settings, a handful at most, it helps build a feeling of claustrophobia. There's really a stark contrast between the outside and indoors. Outside is light and full of life, yet at the same time full of these hidden and unexplained dangers. The indoors are barely lit and dark. Despite supposedly being safe, they feel even worse than being outside. That's the thing with this movie, you never really feel safe.
THE MUSIC:
Brian McOmber composed the music for It Comes At Night, which is his most notable work. He also composed the music for several of Schults other films. Personally I thought the music worked well enough, but was fairly unforgettable. I honestly think the movie would've worked better without the soundtrack. All of the movies jump scares rely on the music, which was disappointing. There were very tense scenes that used the music masterfully. Almost every scene with Paul had the perfect music. Then there were Travis's nightmare jump-scares, which used orchestra jolts to try and get cheap scares.
STRAY THOUGHTS (SPOILERS):
- Most, if not all, of the scares from the trailer are dreams
- Way too many nightmare sequences
- Are nightmares a symptom?
- Paul is brutal man
- The plot is incredibly similar to that episode arc from the Walking Dead. Where they don't know if they should keep or kill the survivor in season 2
- Paul and Will are both willing to do WHATEVER it takes for their families
- Were Kim and Travis going to bang?
- Did Will really have a brother or not?
FINAL SCORE:
B+
An enjoyable movie that raises a lot of questions and isn't afraid to leave them unanswered.
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