"It Comes at Night" Review
"It Comes at Night" is a bleak psychological drama movie directed by Trey Edward Shults (Krisha) and it's about a family who gets struck by a mysterious plague in a desolate home. Simply put, it's an unnerving and claustrophobic tale about death, trust, and family with a brilliant cast attached to it (Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Riley Keough). Although it's not necessary to know this to appreciate the movie, Shults' movies are very personal to his life. This movie specifically is the manifestation of his grief after his father had died. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shults stated that "[the movie] represented the emotions I was going through. Coming right after my dad, it was death and it was fear and it was regret and family... And all of that kind of bubbled up and boiled together into what this movie is." The decisions of its characters feel desperate, helpless, and angry. The plague that affects the world of the film's narrative is as unforgiving and frightening as death itself. One can feel a bit cheated after watching due to the film's lack of answers but how can it explain something that's so inexplicable to begin with?
The movie's dreadful atmosphere, i.e., the tense camerawork, grim lighting, and allusive script seems to take cues from the cinematography and pacing of a typical Terrence Malick film as well as the darkness and active avoidance of exposition in Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special" (two filmmakers Schults has worked for in the past.) He harnesses the best techniques of both of these artists' filmography which accumulates in what is one of 2017's most unflinching confrontation of mortality. "It Comes at Night" is not a film for everyone and is surely emotionally exhausting to sit through. That being said, it's a story that's worth your attention despite how bleak it is.