Preston Barta // Features Editor
IT COMES AT NIGHT
Rated R, 97 minutes.
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Griffin Robert Faulkner and David Pendleton
Have you ever watched a movie that you were dying to see but when the end credits came up you thought, “Wait… that’s it?” I can certainly remember that feeling in 2004 when the trailers for M. Night Shyamalan’s THE VILLAGE led us to believe we were going to watch a terrifying monster movie. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
While it didn’t meet my expectations, I haven’t been able to shake THE VILLAGE after all these years. I suppose I have generic Hollywood moviemaking and misleading marketing to thank for my initial disappointment, because whenever I see a film that screws up my radar I’m quick to label it awful, when the truth is I’m afraid for a movie to make me feel different.
Similarly, and more effectively, Trey Edward Shults’ follow-up to his equally as obscure domestic drama KRISHA (our review), IT COMES AT NIGHT, is sure to divide horror audiences, but will also attach itself like a leech to invade your thoughts and dreams.
The film takes place after an enigmatic virus wipes out most of civilization, or at least that’s what the audience can conclude. Sensibly, IT COMES AT NIGHT throws you in the middle of its fearsome situation without much explanation. The disease itself is only scarcely understood by its characters, so it’s up to the viewer to sweep up the breadcrumbs along the way to make sense of it all.
At the film’s opening we see one of its characters equipped with a gas mask and gloves while they attempt to bring about peace to an old man on his deathbed. The beloved old man (David Pendleton) is the father of Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), who, with her husband Paul (Joel Edgerton) and 17-year-old son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), are trying to survive a global epidemic by living deep in the woods. Each day creeps by, but they are determined to defeat the outbreak. So when Sarah’s dad shows signs of the infection, Paul shoots him and burns his corpse. Nothing against the guy; it’s just a survival tactic.
However, the family’s lives are truly upended when an intruder (Christopher Abbott) comes looking for food and shelter for his own family (Riley Keough and Griffin Robert Faulkner). Henceforth, IT COMES AT NIGHT fashions itself to become quite the intense game of paranoia, trust and regret.
If you are craving a conventional horror movie with exciting scares and clearly defined answers, seek elsewhere. This is not that movie. Truthfully, IT COMES AT NIGHT has more in common with Shults’ previous film KRISHA than your common wide-release horror film. There are no real scares to be found, only a continuous sense of dread that doesn’t let up. It’s a film that is more interested in constructing a specific atmosphere that allows viewers to stew.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments that’ll make you shriek or hold your armrest with a deadly grip. Shults stylishly and expertly generates a whirlpool of tension and mystery, occasionally mirroring what we often see in our darkest of nightmares. The couple’s son, Travis, has dreams in the film that showcase these frightening images to an overwhelming degree.
IT COMES AT NIGHT provides more questions than answers, often sinking too deep into ambiguity for audiences to come up for air. This narrative structure is simultaneously its greatest draw and most frustrating flaw. Whether it leaves you unappeased or blown away, its allegorical themes will follow you home and haunt you for days.
Grade: B
IT COMES AT NIGHT opens on Friday (6/9).
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