Review: It Comes at Night is a genuinely terrifying thriller

REVIEW: What, exactly, comes at night is never directly addressed in this lean, mean and genuinely terrifying post-apocalyptic thriller.

IT COMES AT NIGHT (MA15+)

****

Director: Trey Edward Shults

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough

Verdict: Bare bones thriller

What, exactly, comes at night is never directly addressed in this lean, mean and genuinely terrifying post-apocalyptic thriller.

That’s what makes it so clever.

The plague-like illness that has decimated the planet is clearly the physical manifestation of the “bogeyman” suggested by the film’s title (and somewhat misleading publicity poster). The symptoms of this old-testament pestilence — abscesses, pustules, engorged irises and sunken chests — are certainly the stuff of horror.

It Comes At Night is a bare bones thriller. Picture: Supplied

But the real threat to the resourceful family-of-three at the centre of It Comes at Night is perhaps psychological (the red door is left open to that question right up until the credits roll).

After helping his father, Paul (played by Aussie Joel Edgerton), euthanase and bury his grandfather (in an opening sequences that makes it clear this illness is to be avoided at all costs), 17-year-old Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is haunted by terrible nightmares.

His gaslit nocturnal wanderings through the labyrinthine corridors of the family’s rural hideaway add to a creeping sense of unease.

Edgerton is rock solid as the gruff, capable patriarch who is determined to do whatever it takes to protect his embattled son and wife (Carmen Ejogo).

Their precarious domestic existence is threatened when a man, Will (Christopher Abbott), breaks into their house in the middle of the night.

Joel Edgerton, left, and Christopher Abbott in a scene from "It Comes At Night." Picture: A24 via AP

After leaving him tied to a tree, gagged and blindfolded, for three days to ensure he isn’t sick, Paul begins to let down his guard, eventually accompanying Will back to the cabin where Will’s desperate wife (Riley Keough) and young son Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner) are waiting.

The two families join forces to build small, fragile community that tentatively blossoms under the warmth of ordinary human companionship. But in this isolated, claustrophobic, besieged environment, mistrust and paranoia are never far away.

And as the threat escalates, tensions spill over. When their own lives are at stake, decent people are capable of unforgivable acts.

It Comes At Night marks writer-director Trey Edward Shults as a talent to watch.

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Originally published as Review: It Comes at Night is a genuinely terrifying thriller