YOU'RE NEXT (2011)

Studio:       Lionsgate
Director:    Adam Wingard
Writer:       Simon Barrett
Producer:  Keith Calder, Jessica Wu, Simon Barrett, Kim Sherman
Stars:     Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Sarah Myers, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden

Review Score:

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Summary:

A family is terrorized in their secluded home by a trio of murderous intruders disguised in animal masks.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

While Erik Harson showers, an intruder in an animal mask murders his girlfriend Talia. After his shower, Erik sees the words “you’re next” written on the window before being stabbed.

Paul and Aubrey Davison prepare to celebrate their wedding anniversary at the secluded new home recently purchased near Erik Harson’s house. Joining their parents for the celebration are son Crispian and his girlfriend Erin, son Drake and his wife Kelly, daughter Aimee and her boyfriend Tariq, and son Felix and his girlfriend Zee.

During a family argument over dinner, something outside draws Tariq out of his chair and he is suddenly shot through the window with a crossbow bolt. The Davison family soon realizes that they are under siege by unknown attackers and their cell phones are being jammed. Drake takes a crossbow bolt in his back, but survives. Aimee attempts to go for a vehicle, but her throat is sliced by razor wire when she runs outside. Erin sends a text to 911 in hopes that it will eventually go through.

Paul escorts Aubrey upstairs to lie down. The Fox Mask intruder emerges from beneath the bed and kills Aubrey when she is alone. Tiger Mask is stabbed by Erin after reaching through a window to grab her. The remaining family members find Aubrey dead in her room with the words “you’re next” written in blood on the wall. Kelly flees outside and runs into the darkness after coming face to face with Fox Mask inside the house. She makes it to Harson’s house before being tracked down and killed. Crispian plans to find a vehicle and also makes a break for it outside.

Tiger Mask enters the home and Erin kills him. In an upstairs closet, Paul finds provisions indicating that the intruders had hidden in the house for days watching them. Fox Mask cuts Paul’s throat in front of Felix and Zee. It is revealed that Felix and Zee are in on the murders, having contracted the intruders so that Felix can gain the family inheritance.

Lamb Mask breaks down after seeing Tiger Mask’s body. When he moves to kill a dazed and drugged Drake, Erin surprise attacks Lamb Mask before he runs away. Erin and Drake regroup with Felix and Zee. Erin begins arming the others and booby-trapping the house, revealing that she grew up in a survivalist compound.

Felix kills his brother Drake in the basement. When Fox Mask tries to kill Erin, she jumps outside through a second story window. Lamb Mask chases Erin with his crossbow, but she makes it back to the house.

Lamb Mask puts his boot through an upturned nail while entering the house through a window. Fox Mask, Felix, and Zee hear his screams and go to check on him. From her hiding place nearby, Erin overhears the four of them discussing their plan and she learns the truth. Her phone rings with a response from 911. Fox Mask hears the noise and investigates, but Erin escapes.

Felix and Zee search for Erin outside. Lamb Mask searches near the house and Erin stabs him in his head. Fox Mask returns after Erin sets more traps and she kills him too. Erin eventually confronts Felix and Zee in the kitchen. Erin kills Felix by using an overturned blender on his skull. She then pulls a knife from her shoulder and uses it to kill Zee.

Erin answers Felix’s phone. On the other end is Crispian, asking, “is it over?” Thinking he is speaking to his brother, Crispian reveals that he and Felix were in on the plot to kill their family together. Crispian returns to the house and tries appealing to his girlfriend in person. He tells Erin that it was never in the plan to harm her, as she was intended to be an impartial witness. Erin stabs Crispian in the neck, but she is shot suddenly by Officer Trubiano, a policeman who arrives outside. Trubiano calls in the crime scene before opening the front door. Injured from the gunshot, Erin groggily pleads with Trubiano to stop, but he triggers Erin’s remaining trap and takes an axe to his face.

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Review:

Debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, “You’re Next” waited in distribution purgatory for two years before releasing in 2013 to respectable acclaim and modest commercial success.  Positive word of mouth kept the film on its feet while taking shots to the chin from some critics and moviegoers, turning it into the Weeble Wobble of horror films.  It is an apropos analogy considering how the movie stumbles around looking for its legs to prevent a full faceplant on the canvas.  “You’re Next” bobbles a garden variety first act with a nearly nonsensical second, but redeems itself in the final third by replacing its straight slasher setup with a stylistic flourish of personality.

Mr. and Mrs. Davison are readying their secluded country manor for a family gathering.  Joining mom and dad to celebrate their milestone wedding anniversary are the couple’s four grown children and everyone’s significant others.  But, as Eli Roth narrates in his “Thanksgiving” trailer, “an uninvited guest has arrived.”  Three of them, in fact.  While the Davisons squawk, squabble, and stuff their faces over the dinner table, a trio of intruders dons barnyard masks and besieges the house for a murderous game of Ten Little Indians.

With a premise running low on novelty appeal, the delivery is left with the Herculean task of lifting “You’re Next” from under a heap of similar home invasion thrillers.  And the initial exposition scenes let that ball slip to the ground more often than they hold on for a first down.

Siblings arriving at the house figure the best way to introduce themselves is to approach silently before putting a hand on someone’s startled shoulder.  Victims slowly backpedal in fear before predictably turning around into a killer’s blade.  When footsteps are heard coming from a supposedly empty upstairs room, someone offers false assurance that it is just an old house creaking.  These disappointingly typical scare tactics grow like unruly weeds to divert the action down a steady path of been there done that.

If this first drive downfield is the equivalent of an unrecoverable fumble and turnover, the second possession results in a punt.  “You’re Next” goes from blasé to unbelievable when characters start forgetting what happened thirty seconds ago so the script can move lazily forward to the next kill.

A crossbow sniper sends physical bolts and psychological terror piercing through the Davison’s dining room window.  What follows is a panicked scramble to safety as family members hurtle past open curtains while fueled by adrenaline and fear.  It is a short-lived concern apparently, as once the plot calls them to move to another room, the bare windows and crossbow sniper are suddenly no longer a concern.  Additionally, despite knowing that at least one murderer lurks in the darkness outside, and after a failed run for help results in a severed throat, several characters still attempt making a break for it further into the film as if those previous dangers magically dissipated altogether.

Fortune really favors the Davison clan when it comes out that son Crispian’s college TA girlfriend Erin happens to have been raised in a survivalist camp by her conspiracy-addled father.  Who better to turn the tables on the masked intruders while also turning the woodland home into a Rube Goldberg deathtrap?

As all-too convenient as this development is, “You’re Next” finally puts points on the board and begins marching towards a come from behind victory once it completes this morph into an R-rated “Home Alone.”  Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett take their sweet time getting there, but the up-tempo swing affords them the opportunity to put their signature styles onscreen in the dialogue, filmmaking, and splatter.

For better or for worse, depending upon one’s personal preference for home invasion horror, the feral-faced maniacs of “You’re Next” deliver physical tension, but without the same psychological effect as their counterparts in “The Strangers.”  Missing from their repertoire is that curious animal quality of admiring their kill, which is ironic considering they wear animal masks and have stalked their prey for days.  These are men motivated mainly by murder, and not as much by terror.

Treating their antagonizing role as a nearly nondescript threat makes way for the heroine and her dysfunctional supporting cast to take center stage.  A particular standout, Sharni Vinson gives Erin the resourceful badassery of Zoe Bell encapsulated in the demure sweetness of Jenna Fischer.  The presence she brings to that persona makes her character work, and she is rightfully where the spotlight should be.

Interactions between family members feel entirely natural and are entirely hysterical, yet still restrained.  Something about the way these brothers and sisters find a way to continue petty bickering even while one has an arrow in the back is strangely appropriate in the context of this film’s world.  This is not Peter Jackson, Edgar Wright, or Sam Raimi styled horror-comedy.  This is straight horror that just happens to have intentionally funny moments peppering up the atmosphere.

Had the front portions been loaded with flair similar to the back end, “You’re Next” would be less divisive among audiences unsure of how to categorize its brand of appeal.  It is a slow start of dry conventions and eye-rolling “oh c’mon” moments.  But the kills become more creative, the interplay grows punchier, and the entire package eventually flips a horror movie pancake burnt with mediocrity on one side to expose a fluffy, tasty, buttery treat of entertainment on the other.

Review Score:  70 

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