It Comes at Night is tagged a horror film, but is more a psychological thriller about two families who meet after a mysterious disease has spread across the country. They know little of the situation, resulting in a very realistic sense of isolation and paranoia that is effectively conveyed in the movie.
I was impressed mostly by script and the actors. It Comes at Night does something I like a lot in movies: it tries to be natural and real and doesn't resort to cliche's in the script. It conveys the characters and their relationships through their actions and keeps them down to earth and emphatically convincing. Perhaps it was the ambition of the script to make its audience not want to scream at the screen when the characters do something stupid to drive the plot.
Yet while It Comes at Night delivers on these points and is carried by a phenomenal cast of actors, it fails to deliver on its plot. It never quite becomes a horror, doesn't dwell on the psychological conflict enough to be a proper psychological thriller, and the 'twist', while interesting, isn't really capitalized upon.
There seems to be no real point to the film either, which reminded me of the ending of Lynch's motto "Silencio": sometimes the point of a film is simply to watch, and isn't conceptual. Yet although It Comes at Night as some appealing visuals at times, it is never quite as visually stimulating as other feel-bad films like Mulholland Drive or Requiem for a Dream.
Altogether, I didn't dislike this film, and what they did on the <5 million dollar budget was definitely impressive. I would recommend the film to anyone who likes an organic plot and good acting, and doesn't mind so much that the film doesn't really go anywhere in the end.
I was impressed mostly by script and the actors. It Comes at Night does something I like a lot in movies: it tries to be natural and real and doesn't resort to cliche's in the script. It conveys the characters and their relationships through their actions and keeps them down to earth and emphatically convincing. Perhaps it was the ambition of the script to make its audience not want to scream at the screen when the characters do something stupid to drive the plot.
Yet while It Comes at Night delivers on these points and is carried by a phenomenal cast of actors, it fails to deliver on its plot. It never quite becomes a horror, doesn't dwell on the psychological conflict enough to be a proper psychological thriller, and the 'twist', while interesting, isn't really capitalized upon.
There seems to be no real point to the film either, which reminded me of the ending of Lynch's motto "Silencio": sometimes the point of a film is simply to watch, and isn't conceptual. Yet although It Comes at Night as some appealing visuals at times, it is never quite as visually stimulating as other feel-bad films like Mulholland Drive or Requiem for a Dream.
Altogether, I didn't dislike this film, and what they did on the <5 million dollar budget was definitely impressive. I would recommend the film to anyone who likes an organic plot and good acting, and doesn't mind so much that the film doesn't really go anywhere in the end.