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Quint has seen home-invasion flick You're Next, from the team that brought you A Horrible Way To Die! TIFF!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a review from TIFF! Well, kind of. I’m not at TIFF, never been, but I always salivate at their line-up from afar, especially the Midnight Madness films.
This year I had the opportunity to catch one of the films in advance of the fest and look at me now, getting to feel like I’m participating in one of the greatest film festivals in the world!
The movie in question is called You’re Next and it’s a home invasion flick from Adam Wingard and much of the team that brought horror fans A Horrible Way To Die.
Now, I was a big fan of A Horrible Way To Die, but the technique of the movie did get in the way of the great story being told. If you haven’t had the chance to catch that one do seek it out. On the small screen the low-budget mumblecore reframing/shaky cam stuff won’t be as offensive as it is on the big screen and you’ll be able to focus on the fascinating story and great performances.
Thankfully I don’t need to put any such warning on my recommendation of You’re Next. It’s all that was good about A Horrible Way To Die and shot like a real movie to boot. I don’t mean to sound like a traditionalist snob, but I’m not the biggest fan of that kind of filmmaking technique. A lot of time the reframing stuff is used as a legitimate creative storytelling device, but more often than not it just feels like the filmmakers being lazy.
As I mentioned above You’re Next is a home invasion flick, a particular favorite subgenre of mine. From Straw Dogs to the more recent The Strangers there’s just something about the concept of being terrorized in your own home, a place that is supposed to be safe, that makes for fascinating viewing. Maybe I have a personal space phobia or something, but when these kinds of movies really work for me, man do they work.
And You’re Next works. Big time. The set up is simple. There’s a family gathering in an isolated country home and men with masks show up to ruin what is already a tense family gathering. It’s how Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett tell that simple set-up that makes it work.
Like the best home invasion thrillers, Wingard really puts you in that house, which is a character unto itself. I love when a filmmaker really takes the time to establish a location. It makes all the difference in the world in a film like this. You know the geography of the house, so in a weird way it starts to feel familiar enough to you that when the shit hits the fan it’s almost as if it’s your own house.
Yes, the movie is hardcore with the violence, but it never loses its sense of humor. There’s a particular running gag with an arrow that made me laugh. These movies can become a bit of a bummer if there’s no fun to be had. You gotta have some release.
So, the location, approach and tone are solid, but the real success of the film is how they handled the family and their tormentors. The character dynamics are really smart. It’s always a big plus when a genre movie avoids cliché. There are a few in here (masked stalkers is the big one), but Wingard and Barrett smartly play with convention. They know you know these kinds of movies, that there’s almost always that moment where the characters have to do really stupid shit in order for the movie to keep going, and they make sure to play with your expectation.
The whole cast is strong, which is another big help. Sharni Vinson and A Horrible Way To Die’s AJ Bowen lead the cast as two of the victims in the house. It’s Bowen’s family they are visiting and there’s a few familiar faces there as well, including Mumblecore Jesus Joe Swanberg and Barbara Crampton… Yes, Barbara “Re-Animator/From Beyond” Crampton. Also popping up in the house is director Ti West who doesn’t have a very good time, I’m sorry to say.
I’d love to go on about how great AJ Bowen is in this movie (he’s even better in A Horrible Way To Die), but ever since meeting him after seeing The Signal at Sundance we’ve become good friends, so I’m afraid you’ll just think I’m biased. Let me just say that Bowen brings the goods as usual.
Vinson is also really strong and that’s good because if she wasn’t the movie wouldn’t work. At a certain point she takes charge of the survival of the poor bastards in the house and if that turn isn’t believable coming from this petite, beautiful girl then it just would have been ridiculous.
I could go through the cast list and single everybody out, but that’ll make this review stupid and long, but everybody pulls their weight here. In particular, Swanberg is really strong.
Surprising, tense, graphic, shocking, entertaining, fun. You’re Next is all these things with the final two being the most crucial to me. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a horror movie that is both entertaining and unrestrained. Typically the more graphic horror stuff these days comes across as brutally serious. I could think of a lot of words to describe the Saw sequels, but “fun” isn’t one of them. Then you have the side of the spectrum, the Final Destinations, which are super fun, but light as cotton candy.
You’re Next feels a bit more old school while avoiding the old school formula.
This whole review is a lot of words basically saying that You’re Next is smart. It takes smarts to make a home invasion movie that doesn’t just tread water without being pedantic, that knows when to be fun and when to be scary, that can feel like it’s taking the subject seriously, but not too seriously.
That horror sweet-spot isn’t hit very often anymore. Genre films thrive in that dead zone between being overly serious and overly exploitational and that’s exactly the bullseye that You’re Next hit.
Don’t know what the distribution plans are, but I’m positive you’ll be seeing this one coming soon, most likely on the big screen. I mean, if The Strangers can catch on with audiences than this one’s a shoe-in. If there’s any word on this, I’ll let you folks know.
And that concludes my Toronto coverage! Wow, TIFF is easy. I didn’t even have to leave my comfy, comfy home! Why doesn’t everybody just do it like this?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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Readers Talkback
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First
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Superb
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Looks like fun.
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Might check it out for this chick.
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Who was that movie supposed to appeal to? A mumble-core tinged serial killer movie with a serial killer who looks like Zach Galifianakis. Not scary, not insightful. Just boring, awkward-to-watch hipster crap. That said, I'll give this movie its own fair chance. Heh.
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Sept. 11, 2011, 1:35 a.m. CST
This review manages to mention two of my least favorite movies ever
by billcom6
The Strangers and The Signal, God I hated both of those, I still say The Signal is the worst movie I have ever seen when asked
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The masks kind of remind me of the ones in the Sushi Girl trailer. Second off... I'm gonna actually read the article now.
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I just want to say that occasionally while watching Lord of the Rings I'm totally annoyed that the hobbits don't FEEL smaller than the other characters and that it's obvious they are regular sized. I often wonder why Jackson and co didn't wrangle Willow, Burglecut, Meegosh, and all the other pecks just to make things easier on themselves. I feel the same about this. If they'd just found people whose heads were actually bengal tiger heads, they wouldn't have to use those stupid masks. Sooo fake.
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I like your rice.
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Sept. 11, 2011, 5:05 a.m. CST
I'm not hip to the lingo...what does Quint mean by "reframing"?
by themikejonas
Is it some sort of Rashomon-y deal where we see the same scene from a different perspective (literally or figuratively) to get a different meaning from the scene?
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remind me of the Wicker Man. (The original film, of course... I hate having to say that with every classic movie that gets remade as a piece of shit) Nice Manson Family touch there (yeah, I know everyone has done the "write in blood" bit, but I just got a "Helter Skelter" vibe from the pic." looks good.
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He's always stood out to me when I've seen him, even when the film didn't so much per se. This looks exactly like the the Strangers though, and the camerawork in "A Horrible Way To Die" is wretched...hope this dashes some low expectations.
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I just deleted everything I had to say about how great that flick was. Long story short: It was not a fun movie to watch, therefore = fail. Sorry, but I REALLY hope this flick has nothing to do with A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE.
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Saw his film "Pop Skull" on Netflix. Wished I could rate it less than one star. This guy has no talent, but his rich sycophant hipster friends will still finance his crap no matter how bad it is, so he'll probably churn out more Boll-level turds for a long time to come.
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