IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017)

Studio:       A24
Director:    Trey Edward Shults
Writer:       Trey Edward Shults
Producer:  David Kaplan, Andrea Roa
Stars:     Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Kelvin Harrison Jr., David Pendleton, Griffin Robert Faulkner, Riley Keough

Review Score:

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Summary:

Sheltered in a remote cabin while a plague ravages the outside world, a small family wrestles with paranoia when other survivors discover them.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the aftermath of a devastating virus that has ravaged the world, Paul shelters with his wife Sarah, their teenage son Travis, and Sarah’s father Bud in a remote woodland cabin. When Bud contracts the infection, the family is forced to euthanize him, and Bud’s body is burned in a pit in the forest.

Travis is plagued by a nightmare of his grandfather behind the house’s red door, which leads to a secured entryway. Travis is frightened awake by a vision of Bud writhing and croaking.

A man later revealed to be named Will tries breaking into the house. Paul captures Will and restrains him to a tree outside.

Travis dreams of Will entranced with black eyes.

Paul interrogates Will. Will claims that he saw boards on the windows and assumed Paul’s house was abandoned. Will tells Paul that his wife and young son are living in an abandoned home, but Will had to leave to find water. Will explains that his family has live animals and offers to trade some of their food for Paul’s plentiful water.

Paul discusses Will with Travis and Sarah. Sarah suggests bringing in Will’s family so they can have more people to protect the house. Paul doubts if Will can be trusted.

Paul and Will set off to retrieve Will’s family. Two men in the woods ambush Paul’s truck. Paul shoots one while Will physically fights with the other. Over Will’s protests, Paul shoots the second man too. When Paul asks why Will didn’t want him to kill the second man, Will claims he thought they could get information out of him, but swears he did not know either attacker. Guarding against possible infection, Paul and Will clean themselves up and burn the two bodies.

Paul and Will return home with Will’s wife Kim and young son Andrew. The two families begin coexisting, as well as sharing chores such as chopping wood and purifying water.

Travis dreams of having sex with Kim, who bleeds a black substance into his mouth. Travis wakes and has a late night conversation with Kim about fantasy food over the kitchen table since neither of them can sleep. Paul later reminds Travis that only family can be trusted.

Travis’ dog Stanley darts after something in the woods and disappears. Paul pulls Will and Travis back from the unknown danger in the trees, saying that Stanley will find his way home.

Paul and Will momentarily bond over whiskey. Paul calls out Will when he mentions he was an only child, despite having previously told Paul about a brother who died. Will clarifies that he was speaking about Kim’s brother, whom he considered a brother as well.

Travis wakes to find the red door open and Andrew sleeping underneath Bud’s old bud. Travis takes the boy and returns him to the bed he shares with Will and Kim.

A commotion in the entryway rouses everyone in the house. It turns out to be Stanley, having returned before collapsing on the floor from a disfiguring sickness. Refusing to allow Travis to see the animal first, Paul kills and burns Stanley.

The two families sit down to discuss what happened. Travis mentions that the red door was already open when he first woke up. Travis speculates that Andrew opened the door since he was found underneath Bud’s bed. Paul asks if Andrew sleepwalks. Andrew says he doesn’t remember if he opened the door or not.

Uncertain if the boy became infected, Paul suggests that the two families should separate to different parts of the house for several days. Will agrees. Travis points out to Paul that if Andrew did contract the disease, then Travis probably has it too since he handled the boy without gloves or a gas mask.

Travis has a nightmare of Stanley in the woods. He then has another nightmare of black blood in his mouth and black boils on his arms.

Travis sneaks into the attic to eavesdrop on Will’s family. Travis overhears Andrew crying while Will and Kim plot to leave the house.

Travis tells his parents what he heard. Fearful that Will’s family may try to steal supplies before fleeing, Paul and Sarah don protective outfits and arm themselves.

Will refuses to allow Paul inside their room when Paul asks to check if Andrew is infected. Will claims Andrew is fine, but they want to leave the house anyway. Paul insists that Will open the door. Will does, but takes Paul at gunpoint.

Kim exits the room cradling Andrew in her arms. Will follows with Paul still held at gunpoint, but walks into a standoff with Sarah, who was waiting in the hall. Will and Sarah’s brief confrontation ends with both of them lowering their weapons. However, Paul uses the opportunity to get the drop on Will, retrieve his weapon, and force the family from the house.

Outside, Will turns the tables and begins beating Paul. Sarah is forced to shoot Will. Kim runs away while carrying Andrew. Paul recovers and shoots them both.

In the aftermath, Travis gets sick and eventually succumbs to infection. Paul and Sarah are seen staring at each other in silence over a table, with blood staining Paul’s shirt.

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Review:

A24 is the premier label for arthouse genre films.  Releases including “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” (review here) and “The Witch” (review here) have made their name synonymous with macabre moods crafted by outside-the-box visionaries of indie cinema.  Even A24’s mainstream dramas like “Moonlight” and “Room” deal in dark textures from daring voices, with Oscar-worthy aesthetics lushly slathered onscreen.

For lack of a more informed descriptor, theirs are the kinds of productions people who don’t know better refer to as “elevated horror,” because they need to disassociate that second term from its dirty word connotation with DTV slasher sequels and “found footage” fodder.  Put more appropriately, A24’s pedigree precedes them.  When their logo opens a film, you know you’re settling in for stylized suspense tailored to be psychologically affecting in ways multiplex movies rarely explore.

Such is the case with “It Comes at Night,” writer/director Trey Edward Shults’ tense treatise on death, regret, and how extreme fear can destroy a family.  Based on the pretext above, it’s no shock that the film focuses first on atmosphere, and could use a bit of beef to bolster its slim story.  But nail-biting performances and pointed production design present an undeniably unsettling portrait of paranoia sending sane minds into madness.

Paul, Sarah, and their teenage son Travis are still mourning the essential euthanasia of Sarah’s father Bud.  In the wake of an unspecified virus splitting the world’s population into scared scavengers and infected corpses, their family was forced into seclusion to survive.  Four is now three, as the trio remains holed up in their remote woodland home, behind a barred door protecting them from untold dangers outside.

Then Will arrives.  At first an intruder, Will tries becoming a friend.  The mysterious man has a story about searching for water for his own wife and son, but Paul can’t be sure how much of Will’s tale is true.

Despite Paul’s uncertainty, Sarah points out the reality of needing numbers.  So Paul reluctantly retrieves Will’s family and apprehensively allows them into his home.  As odd occurrences continue to keep everyone on edge, initial unease grows into uninhibited suspicions, placing both families atop a powder keg anxious to explode.

At the film’s post-premiere Q&A at the 2017 Overlook Film Festival, the audience asked many Qs while director Trey Edward Shults provided very few As.  That’s because “It Comes at Night” is the kind of ambiguous experiment in eeriness with no right or wrong regarding how its ideas are interpreted.  “What did (redacted) see in the forest?”  “Was (redacted) really infected?”  Shults coyly responded to every plot-related inquiry with an echo of, “that’s up to you.”

That’s frustrating news for those who prefer their terror to be tangible.  Yet that is the movie “It Comes at Night” is: a dreamy, dreadful descent into disquieting darkness built out of unseen sights from cobwebbed corners of upended imaginations.

Usually, I have a short wick of patience for films where style overshadows narrative.  What keeps “It Comes at Night” out of the trap of vapidity when cerebral substance comes into play, are the careful ways with which Shults composes creepiness.  Cinematography is graceful about capturing grimness.  Art direction infuses sadness in a Spartan setting punctuated by ominous imagery of red doors and dark hallways.  Sinister sorrow surrounds this film with haunting claustrophobia that is effectively inescapable.

Energizing intensity are outstanding performances from Joel Edgerton, who I can’t recall ever being less than impressive, and Christopher Abbott, who should not be overlooked in any discussion of how the film fuels its fears.  The Edgerton/Abbott battery is crucial to the subtle smolder, with each man alternating his aura between friendly and fierce for a terrific tug-of-war of tightening tension.

Should it not already be abundantly clear, “It Comes at Night” brims with the same brand of alienating artistic appeal that polarized patrons of “The Witch” or “It Follows” (review here).  An insular setup also makes for small stakes suspense that doesn’t fully satisfy as a story, with unevenness in each individual’s importance keeping the balance off kilter.  But anyone keen to the themes Shults challenges his audience to confront will find “It Comes at Night” living up to its title when it ends, yet its meaning continues weighing on the mind.

Review Score:  70

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