Review: It Comes at Night

A plague has seemingly hit, with Joel Edgerton a family patriarch keeping his wife (Carmen Ejogo) and kid alive in their home in the woods. Another family man (Christopher Abbot) happens upon their home, looking for supplies. Edgerton is initially wary and hostile until he susses the man out. Pretty soon both families are living together in harmony…for a while.

Frustratingly shy of getting a recommendation, this moody, dour 2017 genre piece from writer-director Trey Edward Shults (who has previously worked on Jeff Nichols’ interesting “Midnight Special”, co-starring Edgerton) has you intrigued for a while. There’s not all that much actually going on and you’re not entirely sure how it all makes sense, but you figure it’ll all come together by the end and arrive at an interesting and satisfying destination. Nope, not really. Playing like a pilot episode to a TV series that would eventually play everything out, this is all there is and it never quite gets around to explaining itself satisfactorily. It’s interesting for a while, but never takes off and in the end leaves you underwhelmed. That’s a shame, because there’s really something here. Or there could’ve been, at least. It just hasn’t been fleshed out enough. Aussie actor Joel Edgerton is well-cast in a performance as dour and low-key as the film itself.

I wanted to love this film. Elements are quite well-done. It just doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s OK, but frustratingly so. It’s too short and too vague to ultimately work, but your mileage may differ.

Rating: C+