YOU’RE NEXT

US, 2013, 96 minutes, Colour.
Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci.
Directed by Adam Wingard.

While it can be said that You’re Next is very good of its kind, this does not mean a general recommendation. It is a violent thriller.

The film has a familiar enough plot. A group of people find themselves in a situation where they cannot escape and mysterious people are trying to kill them. And they are killed one by one. Agatha Christie used this kind of plot in such stories as Ten Little Indians/And then there were none. There’ve been stories of lost patrols, participants killed off one by one. And there have been innumerable horror thrillers over the last three decades in the vein of Friday the 13th or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where (uninteresting) young people have suffered ugly and violent fates.

While there are some violent deaths in this film, and touches of blood and gore, it is, mercifully, not a story about bland young people and their woes. It is a story about adults.

There is a prologue where two people, eventually seen as the neighbours of the central couple, are brutally murdered and the caption, You’re Next, written in blood on their wall.

The main group who are under threat are a couple who have been married for 35 years and own a mention in the countryside. It is a wedding anniversary and their children and their partners all come to the celebratory meal. All begins well, the family chattering, when a dispute breaks out between two of the brothers and there is heightened anger as well as a desire to restore calm. Then one of the gift guests is suddenly struck by a narrow fired from outside. And mayhem begins.

The film a structured well, the reactions of the various people, the succession of deaths, with some ugly and bloody touches, using wits to fend off the attackers, the attackers entering the house.

The cast is strong enough in creating individual characters and so audiences can identify, especially with the older couple, with their academic son who clashes with their his shallow-talking brother, the academic’s student-girlfriend who keeps her wits about her, as well as the youngest brother and his girlfriend. The attackers remain mysterious but are gradually revealed – not nice people at all. And for those who like a twist in the telling of the tale, there are some twists.

But it is Erin, the strong-minded girlfriend, who becomes the centre of the film. She is played by Australian, Sharni Vinson, previous star of Home and Away. The screenplay explains her accent by making her an Australian who grew up in a survival community in the outback, brought to the United States of the age of 15. Australian audiences will definitely be on her side and pleased that she is the strong and determined one.

Most of the action takes place over a few hours, which heightens the tension. And audiences could be looking at themselves and wondering about their reactions as they identify with the characters, feel the desperation, puzzle about what they might do in a similar situation, also puzzle about the amount of violence that they might use in defending themselves and saving others - and what they would do in terms of vengeance for wrongs perceived.

Which means that, if the audience is drawn to ask questions, this terror thriller is a cut, more than a cut, above similar films of its kind.

1. A slasher movie? Better than average of its kind? Action within the house? The diminishing cast? The final twists?

2. The prologue, the murders of the neighbours? The title on the wall? These murders as part of the play rather than random? The victims getting no help from the dead neighbours?

3. The basic story, the anniversary of the wedding, the couples celebrating, their arrival, ordinary, the noise upstairs, the creation of fear? Preparation for the gathering?

4. Crispin and Erin? The focus on them, their life together, student and teacher, his parents, the other members of the family? The characters, audiences identifying with them? The competition with Drake? Eric and Zee? The daughter and her director husband? The setup?

5. The preparations for the meal, everyone sitting down happily, the fight between Drake and Crispin, the surprise of Crispin being so negative, the other guests and their embarrassment?

6. The first shot, the director being killed, his explanation of himself and his work? The panic? Significant characters emerging, the girl deciding to run, limbering, the door, the wire and her throat? Drake and his being wounded? Crispin and the car being damaged? The phones disconnected? The searches?

7. The parents, the grief, the mother, the killer under the bed, her being murdered in her bed? The father, his grief, going upstairs, his being killed?

8. The girl fleeing, going to the neighbour’s house, desperate for help, the dead neighbours, her death?

9. Drake, recovery, is helping with the defence, going to the basement, Eric killing him?

10. Zee, her type, her plot with Eric, the plan, the sexual dimension, with the dead mother in the bed, Eric’s reaction?

11. The killers, the background with Eric, military? Erin bashing one? The other with the nail in his foot? The last killer and the arrows? Anger with Eric?

12. Erin, emerging as the leader, strong woman, her plans, sealing the windows, seeing the killer, the board with the nails and Zee helping her, setting up the door?

13. Erin’s story, telling it to Zee, her being wounded, her past, in the outback, the survival camp? Her parents, coming to America? Her tactics? Going out, coming back, the phone call ringing, the set up of the door, the death of Eric and Zee, her confrontation with Crispin?

14. Crispin, the truth, talking to Erin, his betrayal, his greed, Erin’s listen, reaction, killing him?

15. The police arriving, wounding Erin, her warning about the door?

16. Audiences identifying with the situation, the characters, their reactions, year, the spirit of vengeance?