Sunday, August 25, 2013

You're Next

I’m not at all sure what kind of movie You’re Next is. Which is fine, it can often take a while to definitively label a film. But the problem with this new horror/comedy/torture porn/romp/satire/whatever is that I’m not sure it knows what kind of movie it is either. And therein lies the problem.

You’re Next opens with a pretty groovy and rather freaky double murder that has (unfairly and lazily) drawn comparisons to Drew Barrymore’s introduction in Scream. (In fact, scanning some early reviews, it seems like many people are jumping at the opportunity to label You’re Next as the next Scream. That’s reaching. Way too far. Scream, my friends, this is not.) Anyway, from there, we meet a married couple spending their wedding anniversary in their massive vacation home secluded deep in the woods. Joined for their celebration are their children and their children’s lovers. A few days of festive merriment, with those they love.

As they sit down for their first full meal together, the dynamic of the children begins to be revealed. Snobby Drake (Joe Swanberg), makes fun of his financially insecure brother, Crispian (A.J. Bowen). Reserved Felix (Nicholas Tucci) is about as weird as his girlfriend, Zee (Wendy Glenn), because they apparently don’t know how to speak. Aimee (Amy Seimetz) is the young daughter longing for daddy’s attention. Crispian’s girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vinson) is the outsider hoping to be liked. And on and on. At some point, Aimee’s boyfriend notices something outside, so he walks to the window for a closer look, and is quickly shot in the head with an arrow.
There are two brief sequences that follow this kill that tell you everything you need to know about You’re Next. One: no one at the dinner table notices that Aimee’s boyfriend has been shot in the head with an arrow. And he was shot Right. Next. To. The. Table. Really, it takes about a whole minute for someone to glance up and notice that a dude is fucking dead in the middle of the dining room. So there’s that.

Two: Once the family realizes they are under attack, they all pull out their cell phones, and notice that no one has any reception. The dad says something like, “But this doesn’t make any sense! I used my cell phone YESTERDAY!” A son quickly answers, to the effect of, “Well, dad, they must have a cell phone jammer. They’re illegal, but you can buy them online for like $30!”

So basically, the makers of this film think their audience is so dumb that they need something like a cell phone jammer literally spelled out for them. It doesn’t help that, later in the movie, we actually see one of the attackers turn the cell phone jammer off, thereby making that father/son exchange completely unnecessary.
And I can see my naysayers now: Come on, man, you’re judging the film too harshly. It’s meant to be fun.

And you know what, I think that’s a strong argument. I think director Adam Wingard, his writer Simon Barrett, and his entire cast wanted You’re Next to be in on its own joke. The problem is, its joke doesn’t last for the duration. The sold out audience I saw the movie with laughed with the film a number of times. But on just as many occasions, we laughed at it. Some jokes were obvious, and deserved a chuckle, while other bits were simply idiotic. Some of the violence was gruesome and inventive. Others were corny and meant to provoke amusement.

You’re Next would play perfect as a Midnight Movie Feature – the kind of setting that demands expectations be lowered. But as it sits now, this is a horror film that is tonally all over the map. As with most every film released under the mumblecore movement, I respect Wingard’s intentions, and appreciate that he was able to get this movie made on little money, using many of his own friends. But respect only gets you so far. And you have to know what kind of movie you want to be in order to get anywhere. C-

16 comments:

  1. This movie didn't remotely look interesting from the trailer and from what you made of it, it looks like my initial idea of it wasn't that far off. The fusion of torture-porn gore and torture trying to be melded with "semi-intelligent" satire and dark comedy, is that about right? Some of what was in the trailer was laughably acted. Frankly I think what you wrote, "At some point, Aimee’s boyfriend notices something outside, so he walks to the window for a closer look, and is quickly shot in the head with an arrow," is probably a lot more shocking and funny than anything in the movie.

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    1. Yeah, you're spot on there. This really wasn't terrible but it was just all over the damn place. Am I supposed to laugh, be scared, enjoy myself, be repulsed? Just too much.

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  2. Good review Alex. I had a great time with this movie, however, the humor did get very annoying by the end. Almost "too meta", if there's such a thing.

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    1. Thanks Dan. Yeah, I know what you mean about too meta. It was a little too aware of what it THOUGHT it was doing, if that makes any sense at all.

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  3. Horror is never my forte. It's hard to find a good one these days. I've heard a lot about this film but not enough to gain my interest.

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    1. Definitely a tough genre to crack these days. This one doesn't really hit.

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  4. I planned on skipping this just because home invasion movies really freak me out, but it's nice to know the film was crap anyways. haha

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    1. Ha, well I didn't think it was crap, exactly, but it definitely wasn't scary. To me, anyway.

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  5. why would you even need a cell phone jammer? You could just say they have AT&T ;-)

    looks like a rental if even that.

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    1. See, now THAT'S funny. If they had said that, I would've laughed out loud, thankfully so.

      Definitely a rental. If even.

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  6. The trailer was intriguing, but I'll probably skip this one. I don't watch many horror films anyway.

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    1. Yeah, I think that'd be wise. It's nothing new.

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  7. Greta review man. I saw this at a festival and everyone in the audience was pissing themselves. Not me. The humour - alongside those nasty killings - just didn't work for me. Also, those inconsistencies you mentioned killed me. Some of the acting was so poor, considering the trauma. I felt like it was too aware of shaking things up that some of the strongest work (building suspense - the mask reflection in the window was brilliant) was undone by making fun of the hapless victims. Have had a hard time explaining this to my friends - who all adored it - but this was disappointing.

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    1. Yeah, I agree with everything you said here. At the end of the day, I'll be the first to admit that it's a fun movie. Fun at a midnight screening with your friends after a few beers. But beyond that... I don't think I'll be watching this one again.

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  8. I actually liked this film a great deal (though I waited to read your review until I'd seen the film); I had a lot of fun, and appreciated in particular the filmmakers' love for the genre (there were conscious references to Halloween, The Shining, even Night of the Living Dead that worked well in the context of the film).

    One of the things that you disliked about the film - its tonal disparities - was actually what I enjoyed most. I felt that the film overcame the last act problems of many horror films by shifting the nature of the film. The first half or so is a standard horror/home-invasion type deal, with a grim tone and little-to-no humour. Then just as that's starting to get a bit tired, it shifts into more of an action/survivalist film, with humour starting to bleed in... and by the time you get to the last act, the humour is front-and-centre, which works well as a release for a tense audience (though I didn't find much of the humour satirical).

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    1. You know, most of the reviews for this one seem to speak more in the positive tone of your comment, and hey, that's definitely fair enough. I really like the people behind this movie. I like what they stand for and how they create art by themselves, on the cheap. I definitely enjoyed aspects about You're Next (I enjoy anything with Amy Seimetz) but the flick as a whole didn't really work for me.

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