537: You're Next

[00:00:01] Let's get to Youre Next from 2011. It's directed by Adam Wingard. Stars Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glynn, Amy Simons.

[00:00:21] And the synopsis is, when the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

[00:00:38] I didn't get around to seeing this one until maybe the late 2010s because when this one came out just was not that into horror or home invasion movies slashers.

[00:00:47] So I had heard about it and I think I had seen The Guest. Didn't know what to expect. I know a lot of people really, really like this movie, but there's also a lot of naysayers as well.

[00:01:03] I haven't seen the movie maybe three or four times. I don't think it's horrible, but I think it's... I don't like to use this word often, but I think it's overrated.

[00:01:16] There's something that is so... it feels like there's so much going on and there's so many characters and little connections and subplots and yet, at the same time, it feels like nothing is actually happening.

[00:01:29] It does feel in the same vein as the movie Ready or Not that came years later, which I think is better than this.

[00:01:39] Adam Wingard, first of all, I think he peaked with The Guest.

[00:01:45] This was a decent run for him. He had You're Next, The Guest, and then Blair Witch, which is okay. It's not horrible, but it's alright.

[00:01:53] But after this era, he did Death Note, and then he's gone on to do the two most recent Godzilla movies, which I think are terrible.

[00:02:02] Both of them. The overall concept is interesting.

[00:02:08] And warning spoilers here, just in case.

[00:02:12] The Bride of the Man in the Family, which is this really rich family, well-to-do family, but it's also very dysfunctional.

[00:02:23] She's the outsider. There's this alluding to her being a survivalist because of her upbringing, which is so random and feels very much like a lazy excuse for her to be this amazing fighter.

[00:02:41] When the home invasion starts at the dinner table, I think that's great.

[00:02:46] Where there's the POV shots of the crossbows or the invaders with the crossbows shooting into the windows, like following people from window to window.

[00:02:56] I think all that is awesome.

[00:02:59] But after that initial stage, it feels like the tone is all over the place.

[00:03:06] I don't know if I'm supposed to be caring about these people.

[00:03:10] Am I supposed to be laughing as they get killed?

[00:03:14] Am I supposed to be truly scared about what's going on?

[00:03:17] I can never really tell.

[00:03:18] And it jumps from one tone to the next, scene to scene, without much fluidity or subtlety.

[00:03:26] So that's a major problem.

[00:03:31] But going back real quick, in terms of the narrative, as a whole, it feels like it's relying on specific situations on these set pieces rather than having anything be cohesive.

[00:03:44] Not to mention the fact that the geography of the movie is impossible to follow.

[00:03:52] I can never tell which room is connected to what, where characters are in adjacent to one another.

[00:04:01] However, some standout things I do like.

[00:04:05] The very opening with the neighbor who gets attacked by the gang.

[00:04:12] And there's that song they play on the stereo that they use a few times in the movie.

[00:04:17] The look of the gang is interesting with the different animal masks, like the wolf.

[00:04:26] There's a lamb.

[00:04:28] It's a simple thing, but it's in some ways what makes movies like this, genre horror films like this, be memorable.

[00:04:36] Because that alone, it's such an easy thing to inject into a movie in terms of a plastic mask that the killers wear.

[00:04:45] But it works.

[00:04:49] Some of the more notable or iconic deaths is when the woman is trying to make a run for it.

[00:04:56] And there's the metal wire across the doorway.

[00:05:00] And she slams her neck right into it and doesn't get decapitated, but bleeds out very easily.

[00:05:10] The nail gun death, when one of the killers is saying, why won't you just die and just keeps shooting the guy with nails.

[00:05:20] Probably the best one is the blender in the head at the end.

[00:05:25] And then the, I think it's a knife into the girl's head, the top of her head.

[00:05:32] The slow trickle reveal of who all is involved.

[00:05:36] That's interesting, and I think it's done well enough to not be that predictable.

[00:05:43] Maybe I'm in the minority, but I for sure was not ahead of the game in that way.

[00:05:51] I can appreciate the commentary, if I'm reading it correctly, of this dysfunctional family literally killing each other because they want all the wealth to themselves and devouring each other, so to speak.

[00:06:06] I think all that is there, but not nearly clever enough, well-written enough, or directed well enough to be very resonating or thought-provoking.

[00:06:18] It's just kind of there as a backdrop, and that doesn't really work for me.

[00:06:24] That's why I prefer, maybe not prefer inherently, but a movie like The Strangers, the first one, which plays in very, very familiar ground.

[00:06:34] But I think it does all those things really well.

[00:06:37] It's a very dark, serious, grounded horror film.

[00:06:43] The performance by Sharni Vinson is good, and overall the cast is fine, like no major issues at all.

[00:06:54] I can see some people's arguments for why they like it.

[00:06:57] Like it's not offensively bad.

[00:07:01] I don't have high hopes, but I'll be curious to see what Adam Wingard does next.

[00:07:06] I kind of hope he gets something more small like this or The Guest, as opposed to the big Godzilla movies, which I know he's done directing those, thankfully.

[00:07:18] And yeah.

[00:07:20] That is a 3 out of 5.

[00:07:24] It's positive.

[00:07:24] Wow.

[00:07:25] Oh.

[00:07:25] Thank you.