Previously posted on blog and written by B. Demeter
You’re Next (2011) is good. It’s a clone of The Strangers, Funny Games, Vacancy, etc. But it’s a good clone.
If you know the genre, you will know the set up. There is a group of people in a remote/isolated setting, being menaced and brutally murdered by masked/unseen tormentors. It is not ground breaking cinema. Although the interesting deaths and plot twists will keep you watching.
I’m not going to pretend like I watched this movie recently. I may have watched it about a month ago. So while I have the detriment of not remembering every little detail about the movie, the really good bits have crystallized in my memory. And there are some damn fine good bits.
The group is an affluent family with assorted members (mother, father, brother, and sisters) as well as wives and girlfriends. The setting is a vacation home, nigh a mansion. Our protagonist is Erin, girlfriend of Crispian; a tough and attractive Australian girl. The bad guys are animal mask wearing psychopaths with an assortment of melee weapons.
Shit pops off when, while sitting around the dinner table, arrows start flying through the windows. Pandemonium ensues- however, I do give credit for a semi-realistic portrayal people cautiously and methodically exiting a room under the threat of being hit by a crossbow.
But then the something happens that really made me dig into this film. The family is all in the entry way trying to come up with a plan. They decide that the youngest sister will make a run for it because she is the fastest. She will get a running start in the hallway and someone will open the door at the last minute so the shooter won’t have enough time to react. It’s as solid a plan as any given the situation.
Now my mind is buzzing. What is going to happen? What is going to be on the other side of that door? What if they don’t open the door in time and she just slams into it? And they draw this moment out; there is music and all the action is in slow motion. It is fantastic!
That was it. After that scene I was hooked on this movie. The rest of it plays out appropriately. People die brutally at the hands of the animal masked antagonists. There are booby traps that are set up but not sprung that come back around later in the film, which is always a thrill. There is the typical character-wounded-early-on-who-pops-up-out-of-nowhere-near-the-end. You find out that one of the brothers and his girlfriend orchestrated the whole thing so that they could get their parents money; which is sort of disappointing but at that point I didn’t care. I already liked this movie enough to give it a pass. Plus they tag on a little more deception to the plot at the end, which makes it easier to bare.
The movie is on Netflix for now. I can’t suggest highly enough that you give it a watch. At the very least watch the scene with the girl running out of the door. If that doesn’t do it for you than I don’t know what will.
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