IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017)

To this day the tension, stillness, and darkness of nighttime shots freak me out. Meaning movies that take place primarily at night, esp horror flicks, only add to the creepy setting in a good way. Combine that with slow moving camera shots through dark hallways, outside of a house, etc. and just waiting for something to happen when the tension finally breaks. Given all that, I had higher hopes the more this movie went along. IT COMES AT NIGHT deals with a family holed up in the woods after some disease has been let loose on civilization. We get the usual situations that happen for these ‘paranoia’ type settings. The strangers that come along, the distrust, the tension and maybe-or-maybe not backstabbing that occurs between all parties. These are all reminiscent of flicks like The Thing, any zombie/disease flick, and so on. Issue with this flick though is even after we get the new characters joining our original family (after some interrogations and literal bags over heads tied to a tree), the only ‘tension’ is people yelling at each other, gloomy parables about grief, and not much else. Given all the slow moving shots of dark hallways and outside surroundings, was expecting more…payoffs. Not every flick has to end with the zombie horde surrounding the ‘safehouse’ but I don’t want to feel depressed after viewing either. Yes, the slow-burn horror/drama can be done effectively and is sometimes a welcome change of pace. However, in this one we get a too-slow moving character drama that doesn’t really amount to much…given all that came before. If that’s how you like your nights, check it out. For the rest of us…not much came during these nights or even during the day.

SLASH SCENE: The dogs

SLASH SCORE: 2/5