Written and directed by Trey Edward Schults
Slowing the post-apocalyptic thriller way down and handcuffing it to the kitchen table, Trey Edward Schults’ It Comes At Night is an intimate and realistic take on what it means to live in a society wrecked by disease and the resulting distrust of others.
In a world where a deadly and highly contagious virus has everyone fighting for survival, Paul (Joel Edgerton) lives with his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in a cabin they keep boarded up for fear of outsiders. One night, Will (Christopher Abott) tumbles in through the door looking for food and water, and after a testy standoff, Paul decided to let Will move in with them along with his wife and young son.
It’s a full house all of a sudden! Bonds are built, relationships formed, but one person catching sick can jeopardize all, so can this newly formed polycule survive the danger that lurks outside?
What’s to be feared in It Comes At Night is something we only get glimpses of. Still traumatized by his grandfather’s death, Travis has visions of blood billowing out from where it shouldn’t and puss-filled skin, but the fear factor never ascends above eerie. Don’t expect hordes of undead, roving murderers or any of the gung ho theatrics the end of days might provoke.
Schults tries something novel instead, aiming for a family drama with the added tension of slow and awful death lingering on the fringes. Quiet looks, tender embraces, hardwon smiles in a bleak place – there’s a keen desire to show us what makes people fight to keep on living in a place that’s honestly not quite worth it.
But when it comes to movies, it’s not quite the thought that counts. Schults’ story is still preoccupied with the rather rote logistics of living in a ruined world, interspersed with white-hot fear whenever the routine is broken up by an unusual sound. His characters, led by Edgerton’s Paul, a man entrenched in his want to take care of his family, don’t quite bloom into deep, nuanced people, shackled together as they are by tunnel-visioned survival instinct, understandably enough.
This lack of definition and exploration gives you the impression you’re watching a movie with only a supporting cast and no protagonists to tie your interest to and the family drama about the ties that bind and undo us in turn never materializes. The central position of It Comes At Night, that fathers and mothers will do anything for their family, rings true, but you didn’t need to end the world to convince me. With these characters never coming off the page, you’re left with the feeling of observing, rather than experiencing.
In the end, nothing quite comes for It Comes At Night. The suspense it manages to build goes slack before it drags along the ground, and while it preys upon our fear of the unknown to great effect at its beginning, the letdown of seeing the small figure that ultimately turns the corner after throwing such a large shadow is considerable. Schults’ film is a contained drama masquerading as apocalyptic horror, and while that’s a novel take, you’re unfortunately left with a definite sense of “that’s it?” once credits roll.
Mikkel Frederiksen 