**This post contains MINOR spoilers**
The Story- During a worldwide pandemic, Paul (Joel Edgerton) lives in a secluded house deep in the woods with his wife, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), his son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), Sarah’s father, Bud (David Pendleton), and the family dog, Stanley. After a tense interrogation, Joel reluctantly allows an intruder named Will (Christopher Abbot) to stay at the house in exchange for supplies, and Sarah believes the family has better chances of survival with more people protecting the house.
Will brings his family, including his wife, Kim (Riley Keough), and his son, Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner). Both families peacefully enjoy living under the same roof. But Paul has doubts about Will’s motives, after Will slips up with a few inconsistencies in the story about his past, and his life with Kim during a late night conversation….
My Thoughts- The story focuses on several characters, but there’s a good amount of spotlight on Travis. You could say It Comes At Night also weirdly works as a coming-of-age film, because Travis is pushed into manhood under unprecedented circumstances. Travis can’t afford to make careless mistakes. Paul sternly reminds Travis that he can’t allow his emotions to get in the way. Will and his family are nice people, but family comes first, and you can’t just blindly trust everyone.
There’s a big conundrum for Travis’ accelerated path to adulthood that goes beyond learning how to chop firewood and handling a gun. Travis is still a seventeen year old kid, who’s under enormous pressure to adjust and deal with an isolated lifestyle in a post-apocalyptic world. Kim? Travis clearly has feelings for her. He’s a young man, who hasn’t seen another woman in who knows how long, so it’s not a big surprise for Travis to have a wide-eyed reaction to her.
Paranoia and mistrust are two big themes here. Paul is one jumpy dude, who will kill anyone that threatens the safety of his family, if he has to. Paul wanted to trust Will and his family. They needed the food and the help, and socializing with other people after a seemingly long period of being cooped up and isolated in the woods provides a big sense of relief. But Paul raises his eyebrows, when Will’s stories don’t add up. And the situation takes a sharp turn to the left, after Paul catches Will in a lie.
Did Will know the two men, who ambushed and attacked Paul and Will on the road? Will’s reaction to Paul’s accusations is noticeably awkward. And where did Will get THAT gun from? Yes, there’s a good chance Will fed Paul a bunch of lies and a sob story about a dead brother. At its core, It Comes At Night is a story about two men willing to go to great lengths to protect and provide for their families. It’s all about survival, and resources are scarce in a world, where everyone is trying to either outrun or hide from a deadly disease.
A handful of It Comes At Night’s unanswered questions accomplished their goals, feeding into the thought-provoking paranoia and trust issues throughout the movie. But there’s two scenes that are real head-scratchers for me. Stanley, clearly anxious and disturbed, starts wildly barking, he bites Paul, and Stanley runs into the woods, chasing after an unseen assailant.
In one of Travis’ nightmare sequences, it’s implied that who, or whatever bothered Stanley was some kind of beast, or an animal that was much bigger and stronger than Stanley. That, or it’s another case of Travis’ heightened paranoia driving him crazy to the point, where he believed something truly horrible must’ve happened to Stanley.
Stanley returns…but he’s basically on his deathbed. Who or what attacked Stanley? Why did they run away and leave him in the house? Were the perpetrators trying to send a message, or a warning to Paul? Who opened the backdoor? I guess you could say the unanswered questions and the mystery surrounding Stanley’s unfortunate trip into the woods amps up the levels of terror and the growing tensions between Paul and Will. But I don’t see a big problem with sprinkling in a few more clues and hints to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
It Comes At Night is a strange one for me. One too many scenes with different characters sitting around and talking, and some of the conversations are kind of boring and dull. But there’s no denying writer/director Trey Edward Shults crafts an eerily quiet and overall tense post-apocalyptic horror film. Mixing psychological horror elements with the story of Travis’ growing pains, tight family bonds, and numerous characters choosing bloodshed or violence over more peaceful resolutions, fueled by paranoia and the desperate need to survive, produces a film with a lot of emotional depth.
It Comes At Night starts off with an emotional gut punch, and the movie ends in a whirlwind of bloody violence and chaos. Happiness and the slight chances of hope during the short-lived union between Paul and Will’s families briefly tips the scales on the positive side, but it all comes crashing down during the big finale, after a series of devastating events.
A solid overall cast, and the nighttime scenes and Travis’ nightmare sequences are appropriately spooky and tense. There’s also a strong effort to present the disease as something that’s truly terrifying. No known cures, vaccines, or antidotes? It’s an ugly and contagious death sentence that brings out the absolute worst in people.
Paul and Will’s perspectives are relatable, because if you were in their shoes, you’d understand the mindset behind doing whatever it takes to make it from one day to the next. Yeah, Paul had serious trust issues. MAYBE he should’ve let Will and his family quietly walk away, but when it’s all said and done, one thing’s for sure: Paul made a mistake. Being a good person and following your moral compass for helping others is the right thing to do. But on the other side of that, trusting strangers during a global outbreak opens up the risks for deadly and catastrophic consequences.
Rating- 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment