Adam Wingard's "You're Next" is about a dysfunctional family gathering for their parents' anniversary in their isolated country house. Within a matter of hours, they're being picked off by a gang of animal-masked murderers. It's like what would happen if the Tony Award-winning "August: Osage County" were interrupted halfway through the first act by a deranged serial killer. Most big-budget Hollywood horror films these days disappoint by populating their films with characters you don't care about played by personality-less teens. Indie horror films from the likes of James Wan ("The Conjuring") more often succeed by carefully crafting characters you do care about played by talented actors like Vera Farmiga. But "You're Next" takes a completely different approach than either of these: it makes the majority of its characters as unlikable as possible, which only increases the cathartic thrills of watching them being offed one-by-one.
A super-rich family who acquired their wealth through weapons manufacturing and filled with names like Crispian and Drake, the Davisons and their plus-ones are by and large a despicable bunch of immature snobs who can't even contain their bickering for one anniversary dinner. Needless to say, they have trouble working together or forming a cohesive plan when events take a surprising turn for the worse. Thank goodness, then, for Erin (Sharni Vinson), the Australian girlfriend of one of the brothers, who turns out to be surprisingly capable in a crisis. It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with horror that the outsider -- who's also the most likable character -- ends up fulfilling the "final girl" trope. But embodied by the believably badass Vinson, Erin is probably the best "final girl" since Sidney Prescott in the original "Scream". Watching her adapt to her increasingly-violent surroundings and giving back as good as she gets, "You're Next" starts feeling less like "The Strangers" and more like "Rambo" in a posh mansion.
The plot follows the now-familiar beats of a home invasion thriller (with a few notable exceptions), but the biggest surprise here is the laughs that the familiar plot manages to evoke. The film doesn't derive its chuckles from parody (a la "Shaun Of The Dead") or from meta-commentary (a la "Scream"), but from a more subtle, pitch-black sense of humor and intelligent self-awareness. This film is clearly crafted by people who know and love the genre -- even the cast is filled out by horror directors (Ti West, "The Inkeepers"; Joe Swanberg, "V/H/S"). Their attention to detail and sense of fun while making this film is palpable. Wingard knows exactly what's scary: while there are a couple of overused "jump scares," he otherwise expertly builds the tension through old-school means like creaking floorboards, looming reflections and a soundtrack full of discordant, jangling piano keys. He makes particular good use of an endlessly-looping CD player that weirdly becomes the film's pseudo-theme music -- it will have you downloading "Looking For The Magic" as soon as you get home.
"You're Next" offers a pitch-perfect blend of scares and laughs that you won't soon forget. It doesn't insultingly pander to the lowest common denominator like recent Hollywood horror remakes -- it respects its audience enough to know they'll be able to find the unexpected humor in a family being brutally butchered. So if you're looking for something original from an up-and-coming filmmaker (that also happens to be filled with elaborately-choreographed, exceedingly bloody death scenes), don't miss this delightfully disturbing flick.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRq1SmwJnN0[/youtube]
