 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2017 film. It comes at night It's an a-24 horror film and just to be upfront with you This is my least favorite of all the a-24 horror films I've seen but that's not to say that it's a bad film because it's not it's just my least favorite of a bunch of amazing horror films that a-24 puts out because they do such a good job with horror and if you haven't seen a Whole lot of a-24 horror films look it up and go through those But anyway written and directed by Trey Edward Schultz who had done films Chris Krisha and waves which I have not seen This film made about 15 million dollars so From you know, minusing the budget it made about 15 million dollars So it actually did well for a-24. So very very good for them Initially I had hurt when I was hearing about the film because it was out in theaters I was hearing people were not happy with it And I think a big part is the trailer kind of misrepresented what the film was actually gonna be and I think to a degree the title Misrepresents what's what it's gonna be as well, and I have a very big issue with the title itself for that reason I'll talk about that later, but Just know going forward spoilers spoilers spoilers for this So if you have interest in watching it, it's on Netflix when I'm doing this review So you can stop here check it out and then come back So Schultz actually wrote the script after the death of his father And this was kind of a personal way for him to kind of work through that deal with it That's not totally uncommon. I know there are a lot of people creatives who will you know put their Energy into some sort of creative work of art whether it be writing or painting or whatever in order to kind of deal with Difficult emotions. So that was the situation here Inspiration specifically other than you know working through the death of his father Schultz Sights the shining night of the living dead Paul Paul Thomas Anderson as a director John Casavetes who did Rosemary's baby and the painting the triumph of death by Pieter Brugel the elder now this painting actually shows up in the film. That is the painting that is pretty It's given a decent amount of time in the beginning of the film They kind of like go over a bunch of different parts of it now. I kind of I see the tie-in inspiration from it of just like Things being very bleak all sorts of death. I mean, it's called the triumph of death. It's about Things going terribly wrong and death everywhere and it's horrible, but Is it super profound as an inspiration? Not really But it's it's interesting to know that that was a big inspiration and I think within the film They do a good job of kind of indicating that by showing it quite a bit in the beginning The layout the layout of the house Reportedly was intentionally left to be very vague and Schultz said that it was actually supposed to kind of mirror the labyrinth of Travis's mind and you can kind of view this film honestly as a from how I see it as Travis being trapped inside of his mind this entire time and trying to navigate kind of the emotions and the stress of the life Situations much like navigating this kind of confusing labyrinth of a house and for the audience it is kind of tough to really know what the layout is and obviously was intentional like I said, but You do feel very confused as to like where people are in this house because they they don't take you through every portion Of it there are certain places that are revisited a few times But you don't know in relation to other rooms where that is and from the outside it looks like it's a pretty large-ish house And then from the inside it just looks like and feels like you could just get lost And I think that's kind of good because it conveys to the viewer Just the kind of bleak confusing nature of being in this Environment that's been set up because it feels very post-apocalyptic and it feels like things are always kind of trying to get in it's kind of like a pseudo home invasion film, but the home invasion aspect is from multiple things and Based on the title it comes at night. You kind of feel like it's probably gonna be like a creature Maybe it's a creature feature So there's that aspect of feeling like, you know Maybe there's something out there like a creature that's gonna come and invade the house And you potentially think that in the few times when like the doors being banged on Because something something or someone's trying to get in but then there's also the home invasion of you know people you don't know coming into your house and All the challenges that brings up because no one thinks the same and you know They're not necessarily gonna follow all the rules or be as safe as you they might bring things in with them And then also the aspect of the home invasion of a disease trying to get in not just trying to get into your house But trying to get inside of your own body So all these things it feels like a super duper Amped up home invasion version film in many ways and I think it kind of like it works But I also think the film is a little bit too simplistic at the same time because there's not really You're not really going anywhere in the film. It's just will and his family end up showing up There's the conflict and a lot of conflict moves through that and tension has actually built pretty well through a lot of Scenes where there are issues between the people but Where does it go? You know, obviously it has an ending where you know, the family gets killed and that's really sad and it's bleak and it's emotionally damaging to all the characters and potentially viewers but Like where else are we going? You know, like it just leaves us after that and it feels like this claustrophobic Story that's not thinking outside of just this little bit Which you know, maybe that was the point to to convey the feeling of isolation And if this was written after the death of the directors the writer director's father, you know, that's probably how he was feeling very Isolated not physically but probably, you know, mentally and emotionally isolated. So for that reason, maybe maybe that's what was going on there The beginning makes it seem very post-apocalyptic with the remote Environment and the fact that they're handling their own disease situation and not actually reaching out to medical professionals You know with the grandfather immediately being sick and then they have to kill him and burn him It's very bleak to start and it really does give you a good feel of what this world is that you're entering as a viewer and how not fun it is and and how Kind of paranoid how much paranoia is it play there, too? Because obviously they're going to a lot of lengths to try and protect themselves as much as possible from the disease And then eventually from other people And other people being you know will and his family potentially because no one feels like they can ever fully trust anyone in this You know post apocalyptic environment, but also the people that Paul and will end up running into in the woods who obviously have bad intentions and they end up having to kill The opening scene just shows how hard the living is for these people and how Emotionally punishing the life is and that's very clearly shown with the whole situation with the grandfather Very emotionally punishing and you can see that from the characters So I think they conveyed that pretty well. They set that up well The beginning of the film just creates an environment of stress and paranoia It's like something is constantly outside trying to get in another person a creature a disease It's like the setup for a home invasion film But you feel like there's so much trying to invade and I know I already talked about that But it bears repeating and kind of coming back to it and expanding a little bit and saying you have to understand And I think you kind of do with the way the films laid out the mentality of the characters in this of how It feels like there's so much coming at them every single day and just trying to beat down the doors Physically and metaphorically to get in to get into your mind to get into your body to get into your house Like everything feels like people they're just at this heightened level of fear and Paranoia all the time because that everything feels like a threat everything feels like it's dangerous Because of what this world is Even when will is openly talking In the beginning after he shows up and they you know They apprehend him and they tie him up to the tree even when he's openly talking to Paul as a viewer And you can see Paul doing this as well like You don't you still don't feel like you can necessarily trust him because They've created such a paranoid stressful environment that You just don't know like this guy just showed up. He could be telling the truth. He's very he's seeming very open So like you want to trust him and you want to believe that he's a good person But at the same time if you let your guard down too much That could create the little bit of vulnerability for him to kill you or do something terrible Because you don't know what his motivations are and especially in this environment they're not interacting with a whole lot of people and it seems weird and Suspicious when people do show up because it's a world where everyone seems to be Isolated for the most part I mean I get the feeling that not a lot of people have survived and that a lot of the systems in the World are totally broken at that point like obviously no restaurants or you know Any sort of emergency services or anything really working societally as it like an actual civilization The way they shot the scenery makes you feel isolated So I think they did a really good job there It makes you definitely feel like they're deep inside the woods and I think part of that ends up being portrayed best when You know Paul gets the truck and wills in the back of it and they're gonna go try and get you know Get to Kim and Andrew to bring them back These situations don't leave reaction time or comfort for considering the best way to go about things Which leads to people being stuck in their way of thinking This is best seen in the exchange between Paul and will after they end up killing the guys in the woods It's a stressful situation. It happens so fast. It's life or death and will Paul takes action He kills the one guy and then Will is beating up the other guy and Paul comes in and then he ends up killing that guy now Obviously Paul was coming from it from the standpoint of threat danger. They're trying to kill us kill them first Will was thinking and starts yelling at Paul about it. You know, why did you kill him immediately? Maybe he had some information. Maybe there are more people out there like we don't know and I felt like that highlighted Well creating, you know the headbutting that was going on that especially in these stressful situations these life altering and life-threatening situations people Stick with their gut instinct, which isn't necessarily the smartest situation So they don't have time to like stop and use critical thinking now with things like how you want to board up your house How you want to set up kind of like checkpoints of making sure that disease doesn't get into the house or Safeguarding measures like you have time to critically think that stuff because that's not stuff that's You know physically coming at you at that moment, but with these people in the woods You don't have time to think you don't have time to work things out You don't have time, you know Paul and Will don't have a time to have a dialogue and figure out Well, what should we do in this situation? So they just do it and then the fact that someone Reacts the way another person wouldn't create additional tension creates headbutting because hey, I would have done this Well, I did this well Why did you do that and the problem is in those instances it doesn't create a whole lot of understanding between people either Because the stress is so high and the threat is so high people are just in self-preservation mode So they could kind of care less Because of the stakes what the other person is thinking or what the other person would think they should try doing instead so it really The whole the whole environment and atmosphere just really contributes to a lot of the problems that end up coming up in the film later between Will's family and Paul's family because Everyone's thinking self-preservation. Everyone's in this fearful living mode of just survive And if it comes down to it screw them we're gonna survive and That's what ends up happening with it You can see how lonely Travis is in this But he's excited when Will and his family move in because he actually gets some social interaction with other people The montage that happens where it shows him You know them actually getting to know Will and Kim and Andrew that montage is very warming It feels like the house starts to actually warm up and become more of a welcoming jovial type place Which before that it obviously wasn't especially because of the passing of the grandfather But it's this kind of nice emotional and intellectual reprieve for Travis who's young to kind of have levity brought into his house because of this other family which makes it even harder at the end when His father kills them because that was kind of the brightest point of his life at that point Where these other people and for that to be snuffed out literally It's terrible now I think that there is a lot of focus on Travis But I think there maybe should have been even more of a focus of Travis and getting more into who he is and his back story And just delving into him personally more I've kind of felt like he was left a little too vague for this trying to focus on him the way that it did So I think that was kind of a shortcoming of the film It's a real rough moment when Travis loses Stanley in the woods because you have to consider that was his best friend And they do a good job of laying that groundwork when in the beginning He goes into his room and he's got those two beds and you know Stanley's laying on the one bed And he's like we'll take care of you, you know, they convey that very well that he's very close with this dog So it makes it tough when he goes away and his dad's like he knows how to get home. We got to go You know, it's self-preservation After getting cozy will create suspicion when he says he's an only child after he initially claimed that they were living with his brother before Now this is one of those things where In a normal life situation, you might not really question that or he might just be like Oh, that's kind of weird but in this situation it kind of turns to a life-or-death thing where it questions the motives of Who will is and what will is really there for and they get a really good job with that scene where they're talking and having drinks Where Paul kind of like questions him and it's just like hmm because you see that they're having like a nice dialogue But once that comes up and he you know, Paul points out that inconsistency the conversation is over and Paul's Paul's demeanor changes wills demeanor changes and Literally Paul gets up and leaves. So it's kind of like that's a point where the relationship really starts to Go downhill and it doesn't recover from that because the suspicion seed has been planted very deep In a normal situation the extended debates about the door being unlocked would seem extremely ridiculous They take a very long amount of time to go over this debate of well Who unlocked the door was Andrew sleepwalking is Andrew sick? What's going on? but this goes back to the whole thing of survival self-preservation everything feels like a threat and dangerous and In those instances people don't calmly work things out and the things just ratchet up and get worse Even though it's drawn out the scene when Will and Kim are trying to leave Keeps a lot of really good tension You truly feel like you have no idea what any of those characters will potentially end up doing It's it's very unknown and as a viewer. You're just kind of like you could see anyone doing anything at any time and doing something crazy That said I don't understand why Will and Sarah Wouldn't just let Kim and I'm sorry Paul and Sarah wouldn't let Will and Kim go now I think it was it was more Paul and less Sarah but You know Will was even saying like we'll go just give us food and water like we'll go And they seemed kind of amenable to that but then he fights back and then when he ends up killing them like I Don't think it felt realistic to me to be honest, especially with how he welcomed them into the house And then also they're agreeing to leave at that point. So like they've already lived with them They've not been an actual threat. I understand that he starts then at that point questioning them and the validity of their Story, but they're agreeing to leave. So it doesn't really make sense story-wise that Paul would actually You know be in the situation that led to them getting killed I would think that what he actually would have done is just been like fine. Here's some food and water buy You know at gunpoint maybe you know them at gunpoint at that point, but he would get rid of them So I kind of felt like it didn't It didn't make sense it didn't jive with how the characters actually were and the situation if you're even Somewhat a somewhat decent human being I don't know how you go on with your life after killing a whole family or Witnessing that especially if it's a family member who just did that It's a it's it's a pretty sickening scene. It's a very bleak scene. It's very depressing and I think that's where the whole painting the triumph of death painting comes in especially even by name because The triumph of death at the end, you know, they kill an entire family They welcome these people eventually kind of warmly into the house and then it ends in Massacre for Will and Kim and Andrew. So it is the painting definitely It's a bad title for what the film is I assume it had to do with the nighttime kind of being a more scary time when most paranoia is induced So I think they're trying to draw that parallel parallel, but the idea it comes at night Signifies a few things one that there's a super significant Aspect to the actual story of the nighttime Which there really isn't as the story plays out and to that there's something lurking out there, which I mean there is But it's more of like a in-your-head and metaphorical type lurking Than an actual physical the title makes you think that it's gonna be like a creature feature And there's something physically out there in the woods trying to get in so and they kind of like Give you the idea of that early on too when Will's trying to break into the house Well, I mean he successfully breaks the door down, but That makes you feel like oh it is gonna be a creature feature I think that's one of the reasons people hated the movie so much when they initially saw it because this happens all the time When the film kind of promises a certain thing based on the title and or the trailer If people don't get what they're expecting they get really pissed and they won't even They won't even open their minds up to just experience the film Like if they don't get exactly what they thought they were gonna get they just shut it out and they immediately think it sucks It's dumb, and that's what happens with really good films like the cabin in the woods. That's what happened to that That's why people hated it when it came out in theaters for the most part, but it's an amazing film It's interesting to watch this film and realize that a lot of what spawns suspicion and causes tension Is no big deal under normal situations in a normal world It just highlights the human self-preservation instincts during times of threat. So yeah, I think it's a very good look at humanity at its worst, but because of survival because everything the systems around people that have been created to Create comfort have broken down. They're totally gone. You know when all that stuff is is is Stripped away how are we gonna react and you know as a society, especially in the United States? We're going through a little bit of that right now with the whole COVID situation We're a bunch of the comforts in life have been stripped away. So people feel a bit more on edge, you know, there are people who are feeling kind of So like they're in a bit of a self-preservation mode with trying not to get to disease So for that reason when you watch this film some of the aspects feel familiar It feels true to what's actually going on in real life Not nearly to the degree in the film, but you know, you can kind of feel a little bit of the same stuff So it's relatable in that sense. So that's how I have to say of it about it comes at night so out of five stars with half stars in play it is a Good film It was shot very well. The acting was really good all the technical stuff. I enjoyed but I Already cited some of the problems with it and yeah for that reason, I'm just gonna give it two and a half stars I think it I have it very much in the middle just because You know, like I like a lot of aspects about it and I don't like aspects about it But when you watch it, it doesn't feel like it fully works Especially because I don't know where it ends like you understand the impact and there is impact to where it ends But you're just kind of like that's the whole story. I Don't know but anyway, give me your thoughts on it put some comments down there about it comes at night And we'll talk but do me a quick favor and hit that subscribe button if you like any videos I do I would really appreciate that because it helps me out It means a lot for me and my channel and I do appreciate that once again And yeah, just thanks for taking your time and watching this video and until next time keep it brutal