It Comes at Night

I am a fan of post-apocalyptic movies and for the first 20 minutes this film shows promise, good visuals and mood. But then it crawls repeating the same shots and mild shocks until after the hour mark. At this stage you are left wondering when the real story is going to start. Plot elements are started but then abandoned. A little mystery is a good idea in this genre, it heightens the fear but at some point you need an actual narrative to draw it all together.

The ending did force a climax but it seemed botched somewhat by the director so you are left wondering exactly what happened.

The biggest failing is I didn't feel interested enough in the characters to care enough about them during the attempted resolution.

I understand that the budget would have been small but that is no excuse. The camera work was fine. The frights were well done and the tension was well maintained but it gets boring when repeated. The actors did a good job though some were miscast. It was the writing and direction that let the story down.

For a better example of a post apocalyptic movie with a similar setting look at One Hundred Mornings.

It takes a lot for me to dislike a film. It has to be a complete and utter waste of my time, and even then it could still have some redeeming values. Its hard to label It Comes at Night. On one hand, its a slow paced descent into the deepest throes of the human psyche, and on the other hand it is an utterly depressing and hopeless look at humanity.

I tend to lean on the latter part of my assessment, mainly because there is just so much reality to this parable about a world ravaged by a deadly virus (yeesh, imagine if this came out in 2020). More than anything, this film pretty much predicted what could happen if a disease truly did start randomly killing people with no quarter. Society would turn on itself, and it would become a battle of the fittest and prepared, and in some cases, best armed. I don't fault anyone for not liking this film. It's a hard slog and a depressing one at that. I appreciate the fact the film didn't try to sugarcoat anything. I truly believe humanity would turn on each other in a similar way.

Is the movie well made? Sure, I had no problems with the pacing or the reality of the story. Beyond that, there is not much else to say about this film. It's a simple survival story and every person's opinion of it hinges on whether they believe humanity is ultimately selfish (much like myself) or you were looking for a standard horror/thriller that would try holding a mirror up and asking what you would do in that situation.

There's a lot of discussion on here as to whether this film constitutes a horror film or something more akin to a psychological drama.

As a horror film, I didn't find the film scary, and as a psychological drama, not particularly fresh in what it was presenting. I consider 'The Road' as a much, much stronger example of a film that blends horror and psychological drama - in exploring the limits of humanity & family in an apocalyptic setting.

It's nonetheless a well-made film with fine performances, but I came into the film expecting...something great, which it wasn't. That's hype for you.

I must confess I was expecting way more of this "horror" film.

It started off quite well (hence the 4 rating) but after the first 30 minutes went downhill. No questions were answered, you are left with a large list of plot holes and an ending that couldn't be more predictable and boring.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't the worst "horror" film I ever saw but is avoidable especially if you like HORROR.

I'm still waiting for what comes at night.

This was beautifully created and a suspenseful setting but was deeply lacking in storyline. So little actually occurred that I was already confused 40 mins in. If it weren't for Joel Edgerton I would have shut this down 1/3 of the way in. It was confusing, incongruent and frankly a little boring. I patiently waited though and saw it through. Alas the climax was so disappointing I was in shock... and it didn't even happen at night!!! What the hell was coming at night??? Nothing came... even during the day. Not cool... not a horror film, barely a thriller, just a shame.