If you had to name the place you feel the safest, where would you choose? Home would top my list. I know every little space in there. I know places to hide, objects that could be used as weapons and every way in or out. Imagine that your home was invaded with you in it. Would home feel safe anymore?
The 1967 film Wait Until Dark was the first home invasion film I remember seeing. Paired up with 2008’s The Strangers, these films are enough to give you a complex about being home alone. Now, these films are very different in that Suzy from Wait Until Dark had the weakness of being blind while James and Kristen from The Strangers had seclusion as their weakness; both films create enough mental torture to give you nightmares and ensure that you will never answer the door without looking through the peephole again. Suzy’s home was invaded because her attackers were searching for a heroin filled doll inside her apartment while James and Kristen were attacked simply because they were home.
You’re Next brings a new purpose to home invasion. These animal masked killers aren’t looking for a good time, they certainly aren’t searching for drugs and it wasn’t because they were bored. Why, then, is this happening, you ask? Well, you will have to go see it to find out. You didn’t really think I would spoil the fun did you?
Fun is exactly what this film is. The very wealthy Davison family has reunited for Paul (Rob Moran) and Aubrey’s (Barbara Crampton) 35th wedding anniversary at their new, and excessively large, home in the middle of nowhere. Their son Crispian (A.J. Bowen) brings along his Aussie girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vinson) to meet his family for the first time. Along on the trip are brothers Drake (Joe Swanberg) and his wife Kelly, Felix with his strange gothed out girlfriend Zee and their sister Aimee and her boyfriend Tariq (Ti West).
The Davison family has their problems like any other family. During their celebratory dinner, Crispian and Drake break into an argument over the scandalous way Crispian and Erin started dating. During the fight, Tariq notices something strange outside. When he goes to the window to investigate, an arrow busts through the window and hits Tariq in the middle of his forehead. From here, all hell breaks loose and no one seems to know what to do except Erin.
Let’s be honest, I was sold at the mention of A.J. Bowen and Barbara Crampton, who are big horror names. What I didn’t realize was that Ti West, director of The Innkeepers and House of the Devil, would be in it and that several cast members of Magnolia Pictures films V/H/S and V/H/S 2 would be involved. I also enjoy a good heroine and Sharni Vinson’s Erin is just that. If you can imagine Alice of Resident Evil meets Kevin McCallister of Home Alone, that would be Erin. She is a hot, badass, trap making ass kicker.
Shocking, suspenseful and hilarious all at once, You’re Next has easily become my favorite film of the year. I can’t wait to go back for seconds.
You’re Next is in theaters August 23rd.
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