10/22: It Comes at Night
Yesterday's horror flick:
10/22
For today's horror... excursion, I guess (? I'm running out of ways to say this, guys), I watched the horribly mistitled It Comes At Night. The world has been ravaged by a strange disease (which you never really see or have adequately explained), with people fighting for survival in whatever way they can. The film finds a family of three (sadly only recently three, as the grandfather recently died of the strange disease) trying to survive in their wooded home. They are completely isolated until one night a man breaks in, claiming to only be searching for food and water for his family. They chose to believe him and bring his family in, struggling as they do to alter their dynamic and welcome potentially diseased strangers.
Look up any reviews on this movie and you'll see one critique leveled at it almost universally: "NOTHING COMES AT NIGHT." Yeah, that's pretty much my critique too, but not for the reasons most people seem to give. Look, I get what this movie is going for. There is nothing physical that comes at night, no monster or demon, but rather the fear around catching the disease is what comes at night along with all the irrational behavior that comes with it. Most casual watchers seem to miss that point, but here's the difference: I totally get it, I just didn't like it.
After reading up some history behind the title, it seems the filmmaker had the title in his head before the film and then built the rest of the film around it. Bro. It shows. There's all these hints in the movie and the trailer toward something being out there beyond just the disease. The dog barks hysterically at the woods, the family makes the empirical rule of not going out at night, the obviously marked red front security door... it all hints at something greater that exists out in the night. It never comes, and ultimately makes you feel like this was just one big pointless red herring. What you're left with is a predictable and overall empty film about themes we've all seen before.
The best way I can describe It Comes At Night is as a vastly inferior version of A Quiet Place, a movie that actually delivers on the promise of, ya know, something coming at night. I get it, It Comes At Night is all about the evil that exists in humanity, not the evil without, blah blah blah, but that whole trope has been done a million times before and in a million better ways. Perhaps this bare-bones tale would exist better as a short film, but as it stands it feels like a lot of wasted filmmaking prowess which the director obviously has. The film is a beautiful shot but empty shell that treads ground that has been heavily travelled before.
5/10
10/22
For today's horror... excursion, I guess (? I'm running out of ways to say this, guys), I watched the horribly mistitled It Comes At Night. The world has been ravaged by a strange disease (which you never really see or have adequately explained), with people fighting for survival in whatever way they can. The film finds a family of three (sadly only recently three, as the grandfather recently died of the strange disease) trying to survive in their wooded home. They are completely isolated until one night a man breaks in, claiming to only be searching for food and water for his family. They chose to believe him and bring his family in, struggling as they do to alter their dynamic and welcome potentially diseased strangers.
Look up any reviews on this movie and you'll see one critique leveled at it almost universally: "NOTHING COMES AT NIGHT." Yeah, that's pretty much my critique too, but not for the reasons most people seem to give. Look, I get what this movie is going for. There is nothing physical that comes at night, no monster or demon, but rather the fear around catching the disease is what comes at night along with all the irrational behavior that comes with it. Most casual watchers seem to miss that point, but here's the difference: I totally get it, I just didn't like it.
After reading up some history behind the title, it seems the filmmaker had the title in his head before the film and then built the rest of the film around it. Bro. It shows. There's all these hints in the movie and the trailer toward something being out there beyond just the disease. The dog barks hysterically at the woods, the family makes the empirical rule of not going out at night, the obviously marked red front security door... it all hints at something greater that exists out in the night. It never comes, and ultimately makes you feel like this was just one big pointless red herring. What you're left with is a predictable and overall empty film about themes we've all seen before.
The best way I can describe It Comes At Night is as a vastly inferior version of A Quiet Place, a movie that actually delivers on the promise of, ya know, something coming at night. I get it, It Comes At Night is all about the evil that exists in humanity, not the evil without, blah blah blah, but that whole trope has been done a million times before and in a million better ways. Perhaps this bare-bones tale would exist better as a short film, but as it stands it feels like a lot of wasted filmmaking prowess which the director obviously has. The film is a beautiful shot but empty shell that treads ground that has been heavily travelled before.
5/10
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