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| Joel Edgerton (left) and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. in "It Comes at Night" Photo Credit: Imdb.com |
Nowadays, it seems as though it’s rare to get a mainstream horror movie that doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares and/or gore. However, we can take comfort in the quality of horror films that have been released by independent studios. Over the last couple of years, we’ve gotten movies such as “The Witch,” “Darling,” “The Invitation,” “It Follows,” and “The Babadook.” Besides trying to scare us, these films also gave us characters about whom we cared and stories that would encourage discussions, two factors that you would be hard-pressed to find in horror films from bigger studios.
We now have a new talent in indie terror with Trey Edward Shults, who gives us his psychological-horror film, “It Comes at Night.” With devastating performances, an intelligent script, and an atmosphere steeped in crippling paranoia, Shults delivers a horror masterwork that will linger in your mind for days.
After a deadly disease takes hold of the world, Paul (Joel Edgerton), his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and their son Travis (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) take refuge in a house in the woods. When a man named Will (Christopher Abbott) is caught trying to steal supplies for his wife Kim (Riley Keough) and young son Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner), Paul eventually allows them to take shelter. However, as time goes on, the trust between the two families begins to falter, threatening everything and everyone they’re trying to protect.
Joel Edgerton offers a shattering performance as a man who’s pushed to his limit in trying to protect his family. You could feel the tension beneath him whenever his character must make decisions about everyone’s survival, seeing on his face the psychological toll that the events of the film have on him. This is stunning work that shows the kind of deep performances that the horror genre can elicit, seeing as the characters in this film are forced to experience an unthinkable situation, which then calls for the cast members to react with strong emotions that will make us feel the terror that they feel.
Populating the rest of the film are supporting cast members whose performances are every bit as seeped in emotional turmoil as our main character, and they all display the talent to give us a look into their broken lives.
Cinematographer Drew Daniels, who lensed Shults’ debut film, the indie drama “Krisha,” teams up with the director again for this film. The method in which he utilizes limited lighting within the house during the nighttime scenes, using the darkness in such a way that it feels like it’s closing in on the audience, is exceptional. Through this, Daniels creates an unease that runs deep within each shot as we plunge into the smothering darkness.
One of the most notable aspects of Shults’ screenplay is how it doesn’t try to provide an explanation about the origins of the outbreak; the story just places us in the middle of the characters’ lives as they make their way in the end of the world. By withholding this information, Shults offers a sense of mystery and doesn’t let the story become bogged down in what we don’t need to know. Instead, he makes it all about the characters trying to survive this horrific situation.
Shult’s screenplay doesn’t rely on jump scares or offers simple answers, making this the type of story that demands a dialogue when it’s over (my friends and I had a discussion throughout the credits and as we walked out of the theater). Once the film cuts to black, you sit in your seat pondering what just happened on screen, and when you compare your thoughts with those of other viewers, you can begin piecing together what it could all mean.
This is only Shults’ second feature film, and the amount of talent he has shown as a director is remarkable. Although “Krisha” and “It Comes at Night” have different stories, they both deal with people being placed in situations in which they’re forced to inhabit the same space, leading to rising tensions among the characters and making the audience feel that hostility as it permeates the environment within the film, and Shults does a skillful job in capturing the claustrophobia of these scenarios.
It’s a horror movie like this one and those that I mentioned at the beginning of this review that show how this genre has an abundance of potential to challenge audiences and have them asking questions about the events of such narratives. Amidst all of the disposable mainstream horror films that have been released over the last few years, “It Comes at Night” is an example of how on-screen terror can hold depths of artistry, and this is the kind of horror filmmaking of which we need more.
