User Reviews

While the title and synopsis suggest a survival drama, this movie in fact gives you very little detail on the actual measures taken to 'survive' in a situation of prolonged power outage. Two sisters, Nell and Eva, are left orphaned after their dad succumbs to the injuries he received from a chainsaw accident, leaving them helpless at their house with no electricity.

This is a story that tries to highlight the bond between the two sisters played by Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood who deliver terrific and above-average performances respectively. As such, the film packs an emotional punch but fails terribly as a survival thriller. For instance, one wonders how they look as gleeful and healthy as they are, even after a year of no-power (the reason for which isn't explained clearly either). How were they able to procure clean water? Surely, they must have decided on some constraints in the quantity of food they eat. But this doesn't seem to take any toll on their bodies (not even a minor blemish); Page's cheeks look round and rosy as ever.

They must have had to hunt for food on more instances than what's shown in the film. They should have had to fend off more intruders than just the one guy who ends up raping the (supposedly) older sister. There are a plethora of possibilities that could have taken place in the lives of the two sisters. But alas, the director doesn't seem interested in expounding any of it.

Logical reasoning does take a backseat too often, in between the highly emotional moments. Like Eva almost springing into a comfortable upright position just after she has gone through a painful delivery. Like Eva deciding to go ahead with childbearing after being raped. Like the posh house that starts falling apart in like a year and half of not-so- great maintenance (so much for modern architecture!). Like using their last available bit of fuel to burn their house down during heavy downpour and deciding to take shelter in a tree stump instead (with an infant, mind you!) while they could have at least used the gasoline to warm themselves later on.

Nevertheless, the movie does score high on performances and this is probably why one wouldn't want to write off the film altogether. I just wish the movie probed more into the actualities of survival than staging emotional scenes.

Verdict: Writing department needed to do a lot better!

This is one of the more bizarre movies I've seen - mostly because I don't think it's intended to be, but the list of ridiculous situations/events just goes on and on.

So the power goes out - they drive into town and the store is already completely emptied!! What? I mean they never explain what causes the blackout so why did the locals IMMEDIATELY go into long term survival mode?

Their dad hurts himself with a chainsaw - it's an ugly wound, but not immediately life threatening, but he dies in seconds! OK

So - the writers have now arrived at the story they want to tell - they've got rid of the father, leaving the girls on their own, to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere (well not quite, because there's a few other properties on the same "street"), with little fuel, but seemingly an almost endless supply of food.

An eternity passes before they attempt to do any serious foraging, and then presumably on her first attempt otherwise she'd have known the rifle recoil would push her out the tree, she brings down a pig. FIRST ATTEMPT! Other than this and some berry and herb collecting, they seem to survive for over a year on the food in the house.

The house looks amazing, but the roof starts leaking (they make no attempt to fix the leak), and then part of the roof caves in - hmm. They then decide that the house is unsalvageable and USING THEIR PRECIOUS FUEL, burn it down??!!? And go off to live in the woods having shown no sign of any ability to do anything practical like REPAIR THE FRIGGIN ROOF. How exactly do they expect to survive now? We'll never know because that's where the movie ends.

There are a couple of scenes that are quite moving, but set against such an absurd plot, I just wish I'd not wasted my time watching it.

Another in a seemingly endless string of movies about going into the woods sees a small family unit of dad and two older daughters surviving after a mysterious power outage hits the country.

The movie is set in the near future, as we see from somewhat more sophisticated computer interfaces in the home. Strangely, this is where the technology ends, as our trio is left woefully unprepared for when the disaster strikes. They are living at a beautiful forest home, yet have no gas for the jenny and the solar panels do not work.... uh yeah.....

The strange disruption of the radio signals is also very unexplained.

So with the cause, ramifications, extent, etc of this catastrophe left blank and with that, a lot of suspicion on just how much the director thought this through when there are plenty of real world disasters available (solar flare? magnetic pole flip? Gamma ray burst?) we are left with 'Oh... OK... just a PLOT DEVICE...' to move on with. Which means, the story and the acting and the plot better be freaking GOOD....

Instead, we see the small family unit go through classic denial stage, then depression, then motivation stages. There are only two major plot crisis events in the movie, and at times we are left with wondering the ultimate purpose... as the movie starts to seem like a survival instructional video, then slides into a 'sisters 4eva!' girl power movie.

Another very strange point... their gorgeous forest bungalow home begins to self destruct for some reason after only 6 months... and is unlivable after 1 1/2 years.... not saying much for modern construction! No explanation for this very weird self destructing house (and those reading who are lazy on cleaning gutters, please rest easy - it takes YEARS of not cleaning them before the roof starts caving in...)

I didn't score lower, because, despite the many flaws, the actors themselves are top notch and bring their A game, and the beautiful setting is magic to get absorbed in, you can almost smell the pine.

At first I thought it was going to be little interesting to see how they all survive, but as the movie goes on you find out the characters are the kind that would not survive any kind of apocalypse in the long term. If that's the point of this movie, then they nailed it. The movie might seem like it has a good ending, but in reality they wouldn't last a week with an infant without a decent shelter.

Deciding to burn the house down because of 'black mold' and then living in a tree stump while it's beating down rain (and winter is coming soon) is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. They could have fixed the roof eventually, or at least weatherproofed it. Or they could have just found another house, since they were all abandoned. Instead they decide to live outside with an infant. Just plain stupidity.

Seriously, in the ending I was like WTF, DUDE!? After delivering the baby, walking to the house in the rain, she decides to burn it down? I thought she was displaying a case of postpartum psychosis and wondering what is her sister gonna do about that... And what does she do? She agrees that the best option, with her sister's baby just having been born, is to burn the house and go live inside a tree bark while it's raining and doesn't look like it's gonna stop? WTF!?

The movie was OK, performances OK, premise OK. What happens to our civilization if (when) we lose power and communications? How do we survive, having lost all our survival skills (or never even being learnt)? The film deals with issues such as human nature, people robbing and raping each other in case of a catastrophe, instead of helping out and joining forces.

I feel like the most sensitive topics, like how do you preserve food and how do you grow food and how do you prepare food and how do you survive winters when there's no food around and... basically anything that's about survival has been left out. How do they survive 15 months in the forest? There only so much berries in the forests and they're not even there for the entire year... Though, they did show how they can (cook and sterilize) berries, which is respectable.

All in all, the entire film was overshadowed by the ending. They didn't cover much of survival - OK, I can get over it, films don't have to be about what I expect them to be about - but the ending is a complete and absolute sack of... well you know what.

So much from me.

While many reviews under this movie are negative, I actually enjoyed this viewing experience. The two lead actresses, Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood, portray two sisters trying to survive and adapt in an apocalyptic rural America. Both of these actresses provide touching and dedicated performances. After Eva's rape, Wood gives a very raw performance as she tries to cope with the trauma. Both Page and Wood also have good chemistry with each other. They give a believable sisterly bond. I must admit that this movie was a slow burn and had some pacing issues. Personally, I enjoy a slow burn. However, some of the events in this movie have an odd range from being slow paced to fast paced. Some of the writing in this movie is also odd. I understand that this movie is based off of a book, so the movie must have tried the best it could to give justice to the book. However, in an apocalyptic world, I did not expect the lead's father to die from an accidental chainsaw wound to the leg. I found that anticlimactic considering this is such a huge turning point for the sisters. Overall, I enjoyed this movie. I found myself wanting the best for the two sisters. I admit that this movie had flaws and it wasn't the best movie to come from A24, but this is not a bad movie.

Let's just say there was a lot of license and a lot of liberties taken to make this story last as long as it did and the viewer is asked to blindly accept a lot of things that just don't make sense or add up (and i'm not even a survivalist! lol).

like who in their right mind would ever try to fell a tree of that size alone, as in without a spotter??? you start with large branches only or already dead-and-fallen trees, not the trunk of a standing live one!! (one that's not even good for burning cause it hasn't seasoned yet!) and why if they needed to cut that tree do they -- months later -- still have enough wood to keep chopping it for fire (remember the chainsaw's broken) PLUS nearly a truckload of large, evenly cut wood to board-up the entire house (just me??) (not even to address the gross of like 5,000 nails she'd need and used!).

when you're trying to survive in a hostile unpredictable world you would always have your gun by your side. always. not in the house somewhere where you have to run and get it! there's no way they had enough food to even get them to the point where they eventually had to forage. and how did that guy happen to find the jeep keys so easily? again wouldn't you secure all the keys to your only vehicle, even if you have to wear them around your frickn neck?? and you'd definitely hide the gas come on people! but no he easily takes off with both! gaaahhh!!

critical incidentals just so casually waved away by...no explanation. page did a great job acting but all-in-all the movie was convenient, nonsensical and ultimately offensive to thinking people. should've used a coherence consultant. or if you want your viewers to forgive such inconsistencies make a better ending (wow) or offer some great revelation. do we have to do everything??? overall just lazy, frustrating, illogical.

I would just like to know what they were doing with several giant sacks of salt, but didn't have propane, emergency fuel, and even quickly ran out of soap!

They're starving to the point of reading books to continue their vegetarian diets of berries while there's wild boar roaming around?! They don't shoot one until big sis is vitamin deprived wasting away?

They smile when they burn the whole house down with all their life's mementoes (including all those precious books that apparently allowed them to survive so long) because a part of the roof caved in and big sis diagnosed and overreacted to suspected black mold by a little sniff in the stormy air?! Why didn't they just live in the *huge* dance studio?

Among a list of other silly things they did/didn't do, in real life they wouldn't have lasted that long, even with naiive dad around.

After "It Comes At Night" had absolutely nothing come at night, i'm getting sick of these moody post-apocalyptic dramas with titles that are completely wrong or misleading as to the actual content of the movie.

the movie at the start is about a single father with two young adult daughters, Nell and Eva, living in a house out in the woods on the west coast. Then there's a catastrophic power outage that ends up being far worse than a random outage.

While the concept is broad enough not to be based on anything already written, it reminded me very strongly of the novel by William Forstchen "One Second After", about a father and his two young girls living in a small town in the Carolinas when a massive EMP event hits and they have to go months without power.

The novel, which supposedly Newt Gingritch said inspired him to talk about the threat of EMP attacks on the US power grid, was incredibly written and dealt with a lot of the dangerous issues to be dealt with without any sort of electricity, including one of his daughters being diabetic and them having to constantly scour and barter for insulin and ice, while maintaining some manner of stability in the community.

This movie does absolutely none of that. The father dies due to an inexplicable accident in which he is apparently wasting gasoline using a chainsaw to cut down a tree for firewood, only to have it come apart and saw his leg and he bleeds out. This leaves the two daughters to survive for many months in their house hidden away in the woods without power.

There's never any real danger. They have a seemingly endless supply of clean water, enough not just to drink but to bathe and shave with regularity, and an even more endless supply of rice and beans that not only lasts them many many months, but lasts them throughout having Nell's boyfriend over for several days as well.

They somehow continue to maintain the house for over a year, doing nothing but chopping firewood and going on with Nell studying and Eva practicing dancing. The only threat from people in town is when a random shopkeep they'd met earlier shows up to rape Eva and leave.

At the end, suddenly the house is seeing huge pieces collapse due to black mold, and with Eva having a baby, she decides not only can she not live in the moldy house anymore but she wants to use the last of their gasoline to set it on fire and leave.

I don't know how to handle a mold outbreak in a house, but in a post-apocalyptic setting where there's been no electricity in virtually the entire country for over a year, and no communication with the outside world beyond rumor, I think ditching and burning down a huge house that has gone 15 months without being raided or even discovered by potential bandits and looters is suicide.

Another reviewer put it simply and truly; they would die very quickly in the real world. Even if we could believe that they had a perfect house with a huge supply of food and water that lasted them 15 months, they'd end up dead within days after scuttling it and going out on their own without any food or supplies or shelter and a newborn baby.

There are spoilers here, beware!

End of the world. What do you do. These girls, practice modern dance. Study for final exams. Argue a lot. Eat some beans. And in the film's final scene, burn down their house and relocate to a tree stump...in the rain...with a newborn, and a mission. What that mission might be isn't expressed, but a good guess is, it begins by building a house.

{facepalm}

Unfortunately, these buffoons use their last remaining gasoline to set fire to all their food, tools, and building materials. Metaphor for young women birthing a new world? No! Cartoon level stupidity overwrought by wholly unnecessary mellow drama that isn't only boring, it's unbelievable.

In an isolated house in the woods, a widower (Callum Keith Rennie) lives with his daughters Nellie "Nell" (Ellen Page) and Eva (Evan Rachel Wood). When there is a power outage in the area, they have problems to get fuel and supplies in the nearby town. Soon there is a general power outage and the family stays isolated without means of transportation. Out of the blue, the man has an accident with a chainsaw and dies. Now the two girls have to learn how to survive in the wilderness.

"Into the Forest" is one of the most boring and stupid films recently released. The performances are good but the situations are impressively absurd. There is no explanation for the power outage. The girls have just five liters of fuel, and one of them wants a share to use in the generator to listen to music and dance. The same girl is raped and prefers to bring a baby to a world without any perspective. Leaving the house in the rain to deliver the baby inside a tree is ridiculous. But burning their house to the ground because of the smell to stay in the rain with a baby, food, books and pictures and improvise a camping tent in a tree is absolutely nonsense. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Yes, a good film. A different spin the the post apocalyptic film, with sisters and their father spotlighted in a family style of drama when a major, unexplained black out sets it. People panic, gas runs out, stores are empty. You get the picture.

A feeling of dread hits when the father passes during a freak accident, leaving a somewhat unprepared pair of sisters to fend for themselves in what turn out to be a very cruel world. (just in a smaller sample size) The film is beautifully and tastefully handled, even during some some of the tougher scenes (one of a rape of one of the sisters, one a pig killing). I do see one of the leading reviewers focused on that, and condemns the killing, but you can bet this was a pig/boar that was hunted or part of a butchery prop, so settle down with the self righteous rant.

It feels a bit "Into the Wild" with it's instinct to survive and learning how to, meets elements of "The Road", just without the utter despair and bleakness of Hillcoat's underground classic rendition of McCarthy's novel.

The survival aspect of the story was interesting, and the sense of lawlessness was there, instilled with uneasy scenes that gave you the sense without exploiting with violent scenes. The heavy handed relationship aspect of the story and the entitled sister weighed things down a bit for me. She was interested in the metronome and coming back from an injury as a dancer while the grid collapses around them. Got to me, as a character flaw, much the way Christopher McCandless (Into the Wild) got to me. Selfish and entitled. Her sister, portrayed by Ellen Page (and masterfully, though not necessarily a fan of) evens her out with her "hippie-online college-activist" role.

All in all a good film. Flawed but easy to overlook with good script, good cinematography and interesting story.

Seemed to wilt towards the end as it weighed down in the melodramatic choices of having the baby, conceived out of rape, and the burning down of the house they were presumably raised in. 6/10