A Thrill You May Not of Been Expecting
If you’re, er, coming to It Comes At Night expecting a balls out, relentlessly scary horror rollercoaster…I’m sorry to tell you that you’re in for some significant disappointment. The trailers and marketing may have sold it as a conventional cabin-in-the-woods style horror film, but, you know, they had to sell it somehow. And kudos to distributor A24 for attempting to sell it in the first place, because It Comes At Night is anything but a conventional horror film. Taking standard horror tropes and shapeshifting into something else entirely, It Comes At Night is one of those horror films arthouse geeks lap up, and general audiences turn their nose up at. Think more along the lines of a quiet, slow-burning, post-apocalyptic thriller and you’re getting closer to what this hypnotic and brutally intense film is.
The most initially striking thing about It Comes At Night, and the thing that will most likely alienate a majority of its audience, is the cloudiness over what actually does come at night. The general premise is this: a family, consisting of the father Paul (Joel Edgerton), the mother Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and the son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), establish a cabin fortress in the woods, in an attempt to protect themselves from a virus outbreak that has plagued the outside world. One night, they discover an intruder breaking into the house. This is Will (Christopher Abbott), the father of another family who are out searching for water. In exchange for a supply of their food, Edgerton’s Paul agrees to let them have some of their water supply as well as offering to allow them to stay in the house, to build a stronger army in case of any unknown threats.
The plot itself isn’t particularly anything you haven’t seen before, occasionally taking cues from The Walking Dead and Night of the Living Dead to build its basis. However, It Comes At Night’s effectiveness lies in its ingenious subversion of standard horror tropes in order to create something far more resonant and, yes, terrifying. Because make no mistake, It Comes At Night is absolutely terrifying. It’s just not quite the type of terrifying general audiences are mostly accustomed to. Much like how last year’s incredible The Witch (another A24 acolyte) used the basic idea of a witch in the woods as a platform to explore ideas of religion and individuality, Night takes a similar approach with its simple cabin-in-the-woods setting. Here, director Trey Edward Shults plays with the idea of the unknown, and how we as humans react towards it. What the evil is is almost beside the point. Shults is more interested on constructing a deep character study on how we react in situations of duress. He understands that the real terror, comes from the humanity in situations, and how the paranoia, the trust, the fear, shapes our actions. And granted, the scariest thing about It Comes At Night is how you begin to place yourself in that sort of situation and question what we would do.
Like the most effective horror films, It Comes At Night locks you in its grip from the opening frame, and doesn’t let go until the very last one. It’s at times almost unbearably tense, and the fact that you’re often as uncertain to what’s going as the characters are, only amplifies this effect. Shults’ use of the camera is particularly effective. Combined with some truly breathtaking cinematography from Drew Daniels, the camera adds a lingering sense of foreboding and atmosphere, as if the film is constantly creeping up on you, ready to pounce at any moment. The fact that it doesn’t exactly follows through on that pounce in the end, somehow makes it even more chilling. The camera also works as our guide through the film, only letting us see what it wants us to see through the perspective of the characters. Like the characters, the camera ensures that we aren’t aware of what’s happening in the outside world.
The performances are all uniformly excellent, making each beat of paranoia hit home. Edgerton, still one of the most compellingly intense actors working today, continues his solid streak. Paul’s over-confidence comes from his innate fear of what he doesn’t know. In that way, he comes across as the most fearful of them all. Abbott’s Will makes for a great foil for him, and Ejogo and Riley Keough are intriguing support in their slightly less developed roles. The standout here, however, is Harrison Jr. As the young Travis, the character whom we see majority of the film through, he absolutely stuns in what is an emotionally complex and demanding role. Seeing through his eyes, the adults appear more like archetypes, allowing for his complex teenage emotions to come into the mix and add a deeper layer of uncertainty. He is the film’s hook into its abyss of terror and uncertainty, and it’s as thrilling as it is terrifying.
I brought up the point before of It Comes At Night being quite a divisive film; one that mainstream audiences will more than likely baulk at, much like they (unforgivably) did with The Witch. A lot of this will come down to its conclusion, which doesn’t quite give you the answers you want after such a relentlessly bleak and intense 90 minutes. Admittedly, it perhaps relies a bit too much on leaving things to the imagination, to the point where it almost comes across as a little overegged. What it’s actual purpose is, is also less clear. It does a great job and exploring its characters and themes, but what it’s saying, other than “everything sucks!”, isn’t quite followed through enough. Perhaps this will benefit from repeat viewings, which, if you like your horror films with depth and feeling, you’ll most definitely reap. There haven’t been many other films this year that have left me as breathlessly thrilled as It Comes At Night. Leave your expectations at the door and prepare for a brilliantly minimalist and terrifying mood piece.