SFF Review: You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2013)

During the Davison family reunion to mark the 35th wedding anniversary of parents Aubrey and Paul (Barbara Crampton and Rob Moran), men wearing animal masks and equipped with guns, crossbows and axes invade their mansion home and begin brutally preying on the hapless guests, including the couple’s four children and respective partners. Erin (Sharni Vinson), the girlfriend of son Crispian (AJ Bowen), fronts their retaliation, revealing she is the best equipped to protect the rest of the family against their sadistic, unrelenting foes. Amongst a vocal and entertained crowd, this reviewer did not get a kick out this home invasion slasher.

What struck me throughout about You’re Next and severely influenced my enjoyment was the senselessness of the brutality. There was something excessively nasty about it. Some of the characters that meet their demise early are killed off in horrific fashion, and yet there is no evident justification. Rather than be entertained by this – I mean, on ‘most’ occasions watching people be killed on screen isn’t fun, but for some reason this expects an audience to find it so – I was actually sickened and felt uneasy.

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