It Comes at Night
Directed by: Trey Edward Shults
Written by: Trey Edward Shults
Starring: Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, Griffin Robert Faulkner, David Pendleton
Horror/Mystery - 91 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 June 2017
Written by: Trey Edward Shults
Starring: Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, Griffin Robert Faulkner, David Pendleton
Horror/Mystery - 91 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 8 June 2017
Audiences are more than familiar with post-apocalyptic thrillers and ‘look how we live now’ scenarios. Experiencing the confusion and paranoia mid-cataclysm is a bit more rare; think back to when Cloverfield blazed its way into the cinema landscape. The zeitgeist saturating zombie genre also pops to mind as we usually see the spread of zombies and escape of the hearty few. In Trey Edward Shults' It Comes at Night, man's downfall is more human than alien or zombie, but just as terrifying because there is no outside information about what is going on. There is a highly communicable disease involved, but as to where it came from, how it is passed, and how much the rest of the world is infected by it is unknown.
Shults gives the audience suspense, dread, and questions. Oh my God, the unending questions. Shults would never stoop so low as to provide answers, even to the most logical ones like who unlocked a door? Some will say this is intentional; we don’t get all the answers in real life; why should we get them here? I say Shults tripped up and delivered style and the promise of substance. It is not a weakness to calm the audience with a sliver of clarity. Full and intentional opacity is just cruel and hints at the filmmaker’s lackluster writing chops.
Shults gives the audience suspense, dread, and questions. Oh my God, the unending questions. Shults would never stoop so low as to provide answers, even to the most logical ones like who unlocked a door? Some will say this is intentional; we don’t get all the answers in real life; why should we get them here? I say Shults tripped up and delivered style and the promise of substance. It is not a weakness to calm the audience with a sliver of clarity. Full and intentional opacity is just cruel and hints at the filmmaker’s lackluster writing chops.
I loved Shults’ first film, Krisha. The story about the downward spiral of a family’s black sheep was a triumphant arrival of a new filmmaker to watch. Krisha made my 2016 Top 10 list. Shults doesn’t stray too far from family in his second effort ratcheting up the suspense and fear as a family hunkers down in a sprawling, rural house far from civilization with very little idea what is going on with humanity in the cities. Marketing claims it’s a horror film, but there are no walking dead, menacing ghosts, or evil dolls coming to life; it’s because Shults shot it like a horror film. There are cheap jump scares, extended scenes of a lonely lantern exploring impossibly dark hallways, and a sense of unease because sometimes we’re not aware if we’re operating in reality right now or protagonist’s dream.
For a film titled as specific as It Comes At Night, I still have no idea what ‘It’ is. That would require an explanation, the exact characteristics Shults’ screenplay ignores. We watch events through the eyes of 17 year-old Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr., The Birth of a Nation). Our first introduction to Travis occurs during the most traumatic event of his life; grandad is sick with whatever plague is tearing civilization apart and Travis must help with the mercy killing and burning of the body in a shallow grave. Travis’s father, Paul (Joel Edgerton, Black Mass), is the no-nonsense family provider/protector and seems natural as a man ready to confront any and all threats to his homestead. I would not be surprised to learn Paul was one of those survival preppers you see on reality TV; he comes off as that prepared. Travis’s mother, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo, Selma), is compliant enough to go along for the ride.
The family routine and relative sense of security is shattered by the presence of a second family who Paul reluctantly allows to move in; all be it, by his rules. Will (Christopher Abbott, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) and Kim (Riley Keough, Mad Max: Fury Road) are city folk and are at least 15 years younger than Paul and Sarah. They dote on their toddler and are overtly a much tighter family unit than Travis’s more formal, hierarchical family. A steady, but still fragile, camaraderie takes shape in the household and it looks like the allies might have the skills and fortitude to endure the dark time together. However, Travis’s disturbing nightmares and a vague, but unsettling, change in the new family’s story are all it takes for the outside world’s fear to invade the home and shift instincts from collaborative defense to offensive carnage.
I suppose It Comes at Night may be as simple as watching what human beings are capable of doing to one another when societal norms collapse. Will they rally in support, or more likely, devolve into suspicious camps? The wild card in the house acting as the catalyst for harmony or discord is not the new, outsider family; it’s Travis. He eavesdrops, he lusts after Kim (as any lonely teenager would do in his situation), but he also dreams about Kim vomiting the plague into his mouth. We have no idea what forces rip at Travis’s mental faculties; again, no answers, but this kid is falling apart.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and booed when the credits started to roll. Everybody had 'WTF' expressions on their faces as well. Imagine my surprise when I checked the aggregate reviews already posted and there was much love for the film. When that happens, you have to gut check yourself. Did I miss something? Did so many astute movie reviewers catch subtleties I missed? Most importantly, did they figure out answers? Apparently, the mood and paranoid atmosphere are enough for them. They don’t care who opened the door and why so many details add up to nothing at all.
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