It Comes At Night (2017)

It Comes At Night is a subversively effective thriller. I don't know that I personally would want to see it again, but it's the type of film that I can imagine film students going to town on as they discuss what it's really about.

Set in a single location, it's the tale of a family who have fortified themselves in a house in the woods in an attempt to survive an apocalyptic plague.

It's an adult tale. The gruesome nature of some of the events is not dwelt on, but the themes are serious, as are the questions it asks.

The remainder of this post offers potential spoilers (although fairly obscure ones), but if you want to go into the film with no preconceptions then stop reading.


Its outlook on human nature, or at least the nature of the humans in the film, is a cynical one. Paramount to the characters is the family unit, and the film explores the lengths to which people will take this.

At times it also reads as a ghost story. It uses the language of haunted house movies at time, and the dreams of one of the characters could be read purely as visualisations of his inner worries, or they could be indicative of something else. It's a film that allows space for interpretation, although it can be read as a completely straightforward, realistic piece.