As summer bakes on and we hit 105 degrees today and 108 tomorrow, we fantasize about being in a dark, shaded forest in October at 55 degrees. That's the setting of this overlooked indie, directed by Trey Edward Shults, that is being billed as a 'horror movie' but is more a psychological drama/thriller.
It Comes at Night stars edgy Joel Edgerton (fantastic, as usual) as Paul, husband and father who is hiding out in a cabin in the woods with his wife Sarah and teenage son Travis after some sort of unnamed health catastrophe has seemingly affected the world (nuclear war, plague, zombies?).
Their life is upended as Will, a young man, breaks into their sealed-up house looking for food, and winds up becoming their captive. They quickly ease their grip on Will and Paul goes with him to bring back his wife and young son to their cabin.
They all return safely to stay in the cabin but let's just say paranoia, cabin fever, anxiety, and creeping fear take hold of everyone involved and things go from bad to worse.
Although promoted with a very "scariest bits" trailer (above), this movie was not a "zombie film" or even much of a gory horror B-movie. It is truly a psychological horror film about survival, family, and fear. Also throw on heavy doses of mistrust and breakdown of society's rules and a dash of the (un)kindness(?) of strangers.
With a tiny budget and few recognizable actors, the small-scale It Comes at Night delivers with a fantastic sense of mood and place, a slow burning turning of the screws, and some stellar acting. Unanswered questions and motivations are littered throughout the picture to put you on edge and keep you guessing what's happening and why are people so cruel.
Deep, dark, and brutal, It Comes at Night scores more with its mundane, quiet take on the end of the world than the latest seasons of cacophony on The Walking Dead.
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