It Comes at Night

Director: Trey Edward Shults

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo

Rated: R

Runtime: 91 minutes

Every once in a while, there comes a film (at night, presumably) that is so horrendously irredeemable, so socially irresponsible and so seemingly incomplete that it makes you question your love for the medium itself. Regrettably, It Comes at Night was certainly one of those films.

I won’t mince words on this one.

For starters, there are good movies that are slow. For these to be successful, they have to be slow deliberately. There has to be some sort of meditative element, or a gradual build of intrigue to keep the viewer invested. When this is done right, tensions can get to an all-time high before an emotional or physical payoff that makes the whole movie worth the patience. Movies like Zodiac, Prisoners and Let Me In come to mind as being great examples of doing this correctly.

It Comes at Night misses on all of these standards. It’s frustratingly slow, leaving the audience squirming in their seats desperately waiting for the big reveal, the ah-ha moment, if you will, where the whole thing makes sense. This moment never comes. The film profoundly fails to answer any of the interesting questions it poses.

On another note, there are films that are deliberately sad. No one would accuse them of being feel-good experiences, but the movie industry would be terribly one-note and dishonest if it only made happy films. Sad films are necessary, sometimes to enact change, tell a part of history that deserves to be told or to explore themes happy films simply can’t. Good examples of this are Requiem for a Dream, Schindler’s List and Good Will Hunting.

Once again, It Comes at Night totally disappoints in more ways than one. It’s extraordinarily sad, almost comically so, but for no reason at all. It felt like it wanted to explore the themes of death, apocalypse, plague and the philosophical conversation centered around what the world would be like if there were only a few of us left. However, just like the worst episodes of The Walking Dead, the film has no idea what it wants to say. It’s simply not as smart as it wants to be.

This is how I would summarize the point of the film: If there is a new plague, just kill yourself. There is no hope. You can’t trust anyone. It’s not worth it to try.

I cannot and will not get on board with this negligent toxicity.

There is hope. There’s always a reason to keep on fighting. Any movie that refuses to acknowledge this is some way is one I’ll hate because it denies truth to try to get a short-term, knee-jerk reaction out of people so they can call it “art.”

Overall, It Comes at Night is a gloomy, sluggish, pseudo-intellectual mess of a film. I refuse to buy into this hopelessness-mongering waste of time, money and resources, and I hope you will too. There are very few movies that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone, and this is one of them.

Let me tell you a happy story instead.

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to a Royals game. They were down 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth, and after fighting back, won on a walk-off RBI from Whit Merrifield. Everyone lost their minds. Getting to experience something like this is a gift, but one moment elevated the entire night from fantastic to unforgettable.

As we were leaving the stadium talking about what a great game that was, we saw a little boy, maybe 4 or 5, wearing a Merrifield jersey with his Royals cap on backwards holding his mom’s hand. He’s skipping along, unable to hide his excitement. He looks up at her, unabashed joy in his eyes, and says, “Mommy, I can’t believe they won on my birthday!”

Because of the common grace of God, there is hope. There is always a reason to keep on fighting.

Under no circumstances should you see It Comes at Night.

Check out my much more positive review of Wonder Woman here.

You can find the rest of my reviews here.