Advance Movie Review: You're Next

Last week I was lucky enough to attend an advance screening of You're Next, a low-budget horror flick from Lionsgate, and I'd like to tell you a bit about it. I'm going to do my best to avoid any spoilers but there's something about the movie's tagline, "Did you remember to lock your door?" that I just have to get off my chest.

Locking your door doesn't mean dick if they're firing crossbows at you through your windows.

There. Now that that's out of the way, the movie is about a family reunion. The Davison family, three brothers, a sister, and their varied significant others, are gathering to celebrate their parents wedding anniversary. The well-to-do family has been pretty distant lately, something you can tell as soon as they're all together, and for a lot of their significant others this is their first time meeting everybody. The writing is pretty sharp as the characterization crackles in these early scenes. You can more or less tell what kind of relationship these siblings all have to each other and why without really being told, just shown, and the actors do a great job of communicating all that. Seriously, for a cast of full of people I'm pretty sure I never heard of with the exception of Sharni Vinson, the acting is pretty top-notch.

I don't know why I know who she is, honestly, but this blog needed another picture, so...

The family reunion is attacked by strangers suddenly and the violence and bloodshed begins. To be honest, calling this a horror movie isn't fair. Yes, there are a couple of jump scares, but really, it's a home invasion thriller with a lot of violence, a fair bit of gore, and way more comedy than you'd expect. I was honestly laughing through most of the movie. But,and I can't stress this enough, I was laughing with the movie, not at it. All the laughs were on purpose; this is a black comedy through and through.

I don't want to give anything else away, except to say that the plot has two twists to it. The first, anyone with common sense will probably see coming a mile away. The second one, though, caught me by surprise, and that doesn't happen too often with these kinds of movies (full disclosure, though: my guest for the night saw both of them coming, so your mileage may vary).

Mid-sized story short, I really enjoyed this movie, and if you're looking for fun way to kill a few hours, check this one out. You won't be disappointed.