You're Next

Aubrey (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Davison (Rob Moran) welcome his family for a reunion in their isolated vacation house. Their sons Crispian (AJ Bowen) comes with his girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson); Felix (Nicholas Tucci) with his girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn); Drake (Joe Swanberg) with his wife Kelly (Sarah Myers); and their daughter Aimee (Amy Seimetz) comes with her boyfriend Tariq (Ti West). When they are ready to have dinner, they are attacked by a stranger with a crossbow, and Drake is wounded by an arrow and Tariq dies. They discover that their cell phones are jammed and they are trapped in the house. Erin tries to protect the house, closing doors and windows, but the masked killers murder the members of the family. Are the killers lunatic? What is the motive for slaughtering the Davison family?

"You're Next" is a brutal and gore slasher with good story and twists. The plot points are not so obvious and Sharni Vinson is the heroin that every viewer will cheer on. She seems to be a fragile woman but her reaction recalls the lead character in "The Descent". My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Você é o Próximo" ("You're Next")

You're Next is your basic break-in horror film. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie even though the characters were rather basic throughout, with one huge exception.

If you see this movie, see it for the character named Erin, played by Sharni Vinson. She makes this movie. Without her this would be just an average film. Unlike so many horror films where female characters scream and do absurd things because they are terrified out of their minds, Erin takes a survival leadership approach. You're Next would be just an average film without Erin.

Without a doubt a different take on the female character within a horror film. And that is why I recommend seeing this movie.

You're Next is directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett. It stars Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A.J. Bowen and Joe Swanberg. Music is by Mads Heldtberg and cinematography by Andrew Palermo.

The Davison family and partners meet up for a family reunion at a remote holiday home and quickly find that their inner issues are the least of their worries.

The splinter of horror that encompasses home invasion, that most terrifying of subject matters, has had enough filmic entries to actually fill a house! So when another one comes along with good hype and a promise of reinvigorating the formula, it's cause for horror film fans to start salivating.

You're Next doesn't reinvent anything, but it consistently and confidently keeps the formula well oiled and proves to be one of the better films of its type. The set up is standard, a big old country house in the woods, a whole bunch of likable and dislikable people, and of course some outside assailants about to unleash hell on everyone in the house. Refreshingly this is not a roll call of pretty teenagers being stalked and slashed, this is an assorted bunch, young and old, all shapes and sizes, and the family bickering that precedes the carnage is a smart move, because once family members start getting killed there's a genuine sense of grief and regret coursing through those yet to be sliced and diced.

It's nice to find that Wingard has great respect for his target audience, he's made a film for fans of the sub-genre and inserted a darkly comic streak that pays off royally. It's often very nudge nudge and wink winkery, but always in the right places. The director also proves to have a devilish eye for a murder scene, with some of the killings here high grade in blood, physicality and originality. Elsewhere the makers give us a great heroine, a truly resourceful gal that fights back with a ferocity that's both sexy and frightening, and while the revelation of why these events are happening is hardly original – or that the back story given for our heroine's skills is just silly – Wingard plonks it all together with such bloody verve it hardly matters.

Some less than good acting from a couple of the cast, and the overuse of shaky-cam stops it from going through the roof out into the genius stratosphere, but this is a cracker of a home invasion horror and well worth a night in with the lights off and the volume tuned up loud. 8/10

One of my fav home-invasion horror film. Intense. Clever twist. It's unique and even relieving to watch our main star make smart decisions. The whole film is executed with finesse and its pacing doesn't waste any of its minutes.

You're Next begins as a typical horror slasher with an isolated group of family/friends falling under attack from masked axe-wielding murderers, but a couple of twists and turns along the way set this movie apart. The true stand-out that makes You're Next so much more interesting than any other slasher is that the female lead is not a stereotypical inept final girl but a strong, capable survivalist, much more than the killers bargained. You're Next is brutal, gore-filled, and dark but satisfies by turning many horror stereotypes on their head with characters actually making some intelligent decisions in a slasher movie! Like many scary movies, there is some brief and unnecessary sex and nudity, so be prepared, but if you can get past that (or fast forward), the rest of the film is a blast!