It Comes at Night has been heavily marketed as a horror film, but anyone looking for the usual jump scares and scary creatures will probably be sorely disappointed and feedback from audience members I’ve seen online backs that up.
Following an outbreak of an unspecified sickness, a family consisting of Paul (Joel Edgeton), Sarah (Carmen Ejogo) and their 17 year old son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) are living in a fortified house in the woods. They agree to give shelter to another couple with a young child, but suspicions about them begin to surface.
This is in fact more of a slow burning post-apocalyptic thriller than a horror film. It is when director Trey Edward Shults over uses horror film tropes that the movie is less effective. I found myself frustrated with the number of dream sequences that end with Travis sitting bolt upright in bed, panting and sweating. When it avoids those, the tension slowly builds and takes a grip. There is also a nice underlying sexual tension involving Travis and newcomer Kim (Riley Keogh). It probably could have been explored more, but it does give us the best scene of the film as the two of them meet late at night in the kitchen.
Keogh is very good, but the best performance is by Edgerton who continues to impress me with his acting skills and his choices.
The ending has caused some complaints too. I liked the ambiguity of it. Much better than the ending of 10 Cloverfield Lane. That was a better film overall but it made the mistake of showing us too much at the end.
Rating: 7 out of 10