The commercial ends and Alex Trebek smiles to the cameras. We’re watching the latest episode of Jeopardy.
Alex: E. R. Torre, you’re in a bit of a hole with negative $1,398,032, but you’ve got a little better than five minutes to make it all up. (Offers the camera a “yeah, right” smile and rolls his eyes) So, what category would you like to start your (suppresses a chuckle) comeback?
E. R. Torre: Let’s take Films That Make You Want To Slit Your Wrists for $200.
Alex: All right, let’s see what–
E. R. Torre: Oh, and Alex?
Alex: (sighs) Yes Mr. Torre?
E. R. Torre: The comeback has officially begun, baby!!!
I recall when the (unfortunately) named It Comes At Night (2017) er… came out. The critics were ecstatic about it, calling it a dark, nightmarish vision. Over at Rottentomatoes.com, the film earned an impressive 89% positive among the critics.
Here’s the movie’s trailer:
But here’s the thing: While the critics loved the film, audiences weren’t quite as intrigued.
In fact, over at that very same Rottentomatoes.com subsection devoted to this movie, you’ll find that audiences gave it a far less positive approval rating of only 44%.
Ladies and gents, I’m siding with audiences on this one.
It Comes At Night is a post-apocalyptic thriller in the vein of recent zombie features/TV shows except that instead of zombies the very small cast in what I imagine was a very low budget film fights to survive against a disease that has decimated humanity.
When our adventure starts, we’re introduced to a small family consisting of Paul (Joel Edgerton), his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), and Sarah’s infected father (David Pendleton).
Father is, for all intents and purposes, gone. The infection has taken him and he looks like something from a proper horror film. His eyes are black orbs and blood seeps out of his mouth. The danger from the infected, we find, lies in the fact that they are contagious rather than a physical threat. Both Sarah and Paul deal with him while protected by gas masks. Sarah gives the man some last words before they take him outside, put a bullet in his head, and burn his body.
As you can see, the fun has just begun!
We find these now three survivalists have a very tight regimen for dealing with the dangers of this post-apocalyptic world. They’ve barricaded their home and have one entrance/exit.
In through that exit comes, one night (it does come at night!), Will (Christopher Abbott). He’s quickly disarmed, beaten, dragged out of the house, and tied to a tree. We learn that if a person is infected, they’ll show signs of said infection within 24 hours. When Will makes it through that time period, Paul talks to him, roughly, and wants to know what his deal is.
Will states he has a wife and child and broke into the house thinking it was empty and while looking for supplies… specifically water. Though the film doesn’t come right out and state it, one gets the impression that the infection is in the water as Paul and his family are quite diligent in filtering it.
Anyway, Will and Paul make a tenuous peace and head out. They eventually get Will’s wife (Riley Keough) and child and the two families try to make a go of it before tragedy eventually overtakes them.
I won’t give away everything -though believe it or not these plot developments, meager though they are, have just given you roughly 1/2 of the film- but suffice it to say things don’t end well for the entire group.
The movie mostly follows the sometimes distorted visions of Travis, Paul’s 17 year old son, who is having a tough time dealing with the deaths and horrors of the apocalypse. He isn’t helped by the fact that his parents try to shield him from these horrors and that only serves to augment them in his mind.
As one may have implied from what I noted above, It Comes At Night, unfortunately, has too little plot and too long a runtime, in my humble opinion. Had this been a one hour episode of, say, a show like The Walking Dead it might have worked out better as my patience was severely tried as the production dragged along.
When we do eventually reach the film’s end/resolution, I felt there were also too many things up in the air. I don’t mind a film that leaves a lot of mystery behind, but this one’s mysteries aren’t all that earth shattering and it didn’t feel like a mystery was needed.
Who was ultimately responsible for what happened? We don’t know. Yet instead of appreciating the mystery, I found I didn’t care all that much. Who was infected, who wasn’t? Again, it didn’t matter all that much.
When so little matters, one can’t help but feel the film has failed in its mission.
The bottom line is that I’ve seen films like this before and while It Comes At Night is stylish and well directed and well acted, works like it –better works, it must be said- are out there and are worth pursuing before giving this movie a try.
Alas, a pass for me.