'It Comes at Night' A Review

It Comes At Night is a horror/thriller about a family living in a cabin in the wilderness amidst an unspecified apocalyptic plague outbreak. The film opens on Bud(David Pendleton) sick with boils and his daughter Sarah(Carmen Ejogo) saying good bye. Sarah's husband Paul(Joel Edgerton) takes Bud outside the compound with his son, Bud's grandson, Travis(Kelvin Harrison Jr.) to execute him and burn the body to avoid contamination. Later the family is awakened in the night by a break-in. Paul captures Will(Christopher Abbott) and after confirming he is not infected invites him and his wife and young son to join their family in the cabin.

Although an ensemble picture Harrison is, essentially, the lead as the audience surrogate and the action filtered through his perspective. He is open and emotive but not necessarily knowable. He has an active dream life that fades in and out making reality somewhat questionable. This is all to say he does well but there is a reserve about his role as well as the whole movie that creates a distance that doesn't always work. Edgerton is the most grounded and most clear in his performance and, second to Harrison, has the most screen time. The cast all do well but Edgerton, by his natural and formidable presence, is the load bearing center of the film. Other than him the cast is kind of swept up in the immaculate and compelling tone and production design, unable to distinguish themselves much.

Dark and brooding, picturesque yet sinister, all the production elements weave together to create a palpable and unrelenting feeling of paranoia and dread. The problem being there is little else in the film save foreboding and eventual tragedy. As a somewhat abstract piece of art it is interesting but as a film it seems incomplete. Not to say resolution is necessary but the film ends like a run-on sentence, with everything before it being so meticulous it feels inappropriate.

Immaculately constructed, proficiently acted, lacking insight.

Rent It.