6/13/2017 - It Comes At Night (2017) – 7+/10

It Comes is an incredibly taught and visceral genre feature that subverts the expectations as to how it was marketed/what people want it to be. Many were thrown for a loop, as it does not rely on jump scares or consistent horror tropes. Rather, it stands as a hard and depressive film that requires introspection and loss, not what many were prepared for. A film of & about family and creeping dread that, when given the chance, delivers quality and soulful hollowness.

This is a haunting vision that lingers, much like the definitive memory within then film. This is a message of loss and the devastation that comes from such monumental departures. One might (knowing the director’s state-of-mind when writing the film) equate the stumbling in fear of the dark in an assumed post-apocalyptic terror vision to the obsidian obfuscated life landscape of post-parent-partum. There is a shearing darkness and a grasping wandering that one would guess could shatter a sense of well-being and safety. This metaphor and message is soaked into every cell, providing the shadows and cryptic unanswered with an existential trepidation that can’t be shook.

Schultz allows the unease to squirm into your view, with his gliding dolly shots and smart camera interplay. Tension and claustrophobia are constant and ratcheting, despite not being overbearing technically or intrusive. This also comes across in the actors’ executions, which are sharp & “lively behind the eyes” performances, most notably Edgerton. There is an ardor and righteous believably to it all, the story, design, and acting.

It Comes is a heavy and bracing marathon to despondency, with its fine craft, sparseness, and enjoy ability in the journey. Filled with crushing corporeality and a dreamt gloom that is steeped in the murky nightmare-scape that their lives have become. This darkness emerges from the depths of the writer/director but on-screen it is the bleak empty blackness that comes from the lack of society, humanity, and fear. This, not haunted dolls, brain swapping plots, or knife wielding juggernauts, is what brings out the true panic and monsters, be they on Maple Street or deep in an indefinable wilderness. And it is the quality with which this comes across and the manner it is shown that makes this film so good.