It Comes At Night Dir: Trey Edward Shults

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It’s the Walking Dread in this tightly focused post-apocalyptic survival movie; no zombies just Joel Edgerton out to protect his family at any cost.

When a deadly virus ravages the cities, Joel Edgerton holes up with his wife and 17-year-old son in a remote cabin, taking strict precautions to ensure survival. When a stranger breaks in to seek supplies for his wife and child paranoia soon reigns over sickness and scant resources.

Goddamn I love cowering in a darkened cinema, and where else but Ant Timpson’s haunt in Avondale to get a good fright from production house A24, the nice folk responsible for The Witch and A Ghost Story.

Award-winning Trey Edward Shults follows up his debut feature Krisha by tackling my favourite genre – the post-apocalyptic survival movie, with a forlorn mood similar to The Road. Though this is definitely more ‘now’ than somewhere down the line, and is contained within the woods rather than worrying about the outside world. Which makes it all the scarier.

It Comes at Night definitely makes use of the deep dark woods of your imagination. Scoping around at night with a flashlight, seeing shadowy monsters at every flicker, even during the day Shults ramps up the forest fears, lingering on gnarled up-turned roots and black unnaturally twisted branches. When their dog Stanley runs off into the woods you search the screen but you’re frightened of what might pop out at any moment.

That’s the beauty of the scares here, like in real life they’re not telegraphed and come out of nowhere; you are left reeling after quick and brutal frights. And that’s not including the grisly nightmares of the 17-year-old, which bleed into reality and are truly unsettling.

You’re biting your nails as the two families enjoy early co-habitation. Look at this lovely dog, this darling child, these happy moments are sure to last. It’s nerve-wrenching stuff. Oh and the red door you shouldn’t open that only has one set of keys, well nothing to see here either. Your nerves aren’t helped by the intense score, drumming into your head as the vivid cinematography plays out.

If the Academy handed out awards for minimalist MVP’s Aussie Joel Edgerton (Loving) would be the one hiding at the back of the room not looking for any attention. It’s another low-key character turn that burns with a repressed intensity. Supported by a tight group of quality actors, including Kelvin Harrison Jr (Birth of a Nation) as his son and Christopher Abbott (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as the intruder.

Horrors work best when it’s a ‘what would I do’ situation – like last year’s brilliant Don’t Breathe – where you’re caught in sticky morals that are easily discarded when it’s us or them.

A stripped back psychological horror that shreds the nerves and messes with the brain. All over in a breathless hour and a half you’ll be wondering if you’d be as resourceful – or ruthless – as our trans-Tasman survivalist.

Clayton Barnett (https://www.youtube.com/user/claymonster22/videos)

NZIFF link: https://www.nziff.co.nz/2017/auckland/it-comes-at-night/

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