Director Report Card: Adam Wingard (2011) - Part Two

5. You're Next

By 2011, Adam Wingard was certainly a well-known name in the somewhat inclusive world of indie horror. I don't know if the mainstream Hollywood establishment had taken notice yet or not. Either way, excluding the mumblecore grotesqueness of “Autoerotic,” Wingard's films had slowly been getting slicker. When “You're Next” premiered at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival, it caused an immediate bidding war. Liongates would buy the movie for two million dollars – double its budget – and drop it into multiplexes everywhere. This would bring the “mumblegore” aesthetic, which was only just then beginning to solidify, to the masses. Moreover, it would mark Adam Wingard as one of the genre's best and brightest new voices.

Erin really likes her new boyfriend Crispin, who used to be her professor. She likes him enough to accompany him to a dinner with his (very rich) family at their secluded mansion. Mom Audrey is already feeling unsettled, as the weekend begins, convinced intruders are in the house. As the family sits down to eat, and the bickering starts, she learns that this instinct was correct. Assassins in animal masks begin to enter the home and kill the family members one-by-one. Erin, however, proves much harder to kill than expected. As she fights back against the intruders, she discovers that Crispin's family has some secrets of their own.

“You're Next” was born out of Adam Wingard suggesting frequent collaborator Simon Barrett write a home invasion movie, as he found them especially scary. By the time the film was released, films like “Funny Games,” “The Strangers,” and “The Purge” made the home invasion premise pretty played out. This is probably why “You're Next” spins in a truly unexpected direction. Yet before that reveal, it's still a pretty good home invasion movie. The creaking noise of a large house is played up to disquieting effect. We hear weird noises, sensing that something is wrong. The isolation of the location is emphasized from the first scene. This comfortable mansion is too isolated, too sprawling, to feel truly comfortable. The filmmakers uses these elements to generate unease from the get-go. 

This is not the only type of tension “You're Next” utilizes in its first half. Large family gatherings, especially for estranged families, are always wrought with enmity. After sitting down for dinner, it's only a matter of time before the siblings start sniping at each other. Soon enough, the judging and in-fighting begins. Even before the siblings inevitably start backbiting, there's tension in the air. Some of the family members, like Crispin, are totally fed-up and burned out by the years of arguing. Mom Audrey is so nervous that it's totally plausible that she's imagining all the strange sounds she's hearing at first. It's a fertile ground to plant horror in, as it's a very realistic sort of unease many people are already familiar with.

When the violence bursts into the film, it feels like a culmination of all those years of resentment and in-fighting. The initial attack of the first home invasion feels brutal and swift. A boyfriend gets an arrow right between the eyes. Glass shatters. People panic. More arrows rain down on the interior of the home. In one of the film's nastiest surprises, someone attempting to flee runs throat-first into a taunt garrote wire stringed in front of the door. Wingard has obviously learned some things about how to present violence cinematically. The shaky-cam we saw in “A Horrible Way to Die” is still present but it's used in a more controlled, deliberate way. It successfully conveys the panic the characters are feeling in that moment. He also appreciates the strength of slowing down, utilizing still far-off shots and the occasional burst of slow-motion. 

Those home invasion scenes are intense and thrilling, as you'd expect from an experienced and skilled genre filmmaker like Wingard. Yet that is not what makes “You're Next” so fantastically entertaining. Erin slowly reveals that she is not your typical slasher movie final girl. She immediately takes control of the situation, dictating the best way to survive circumstances like this. She sets traps for the masked intruders. A key moment has her successfully taking down an attacker with several swift blows to the back of the head with a hammer. We soon learn that Erin was raised by survivalists. Upon first viewing, this was the most pleasant surprise. “You're Next” isn't just a well-made genre exercise. It's knowingly playing with audience expectations in an exciting and refreshing way. 

In fact, this moment represents a very clear tonal shift inside “You're Next.” There are still tense scenes after this. A sequence where Erin is pursued by a masked intruder, who she distracted with a repeating camera flash, is quite taut. However, a sense of humor sneaks more and more into the story after that. The characters reveal pettier, more absurd sides to themselves. A conversation about having sex next to a corpse is especially comical. Mostly, the humor manifest in the increasingly over-the-top violence. As Erin cleaves through the attackers in increasingly brutal ways, her vengeance becomes more righteous. By the time a blender is weaponized, or the sick joke final kill that closes the movie, “You're Next” totally won me over with its unexpected slide into subversive horror/comedy.

The twist in the story also reveals the not-so-subtle social commentary inherent in “You're Next's” set-up. The biggest swerve reveals that Cripsin's brother, Felix, has hired the killers to bump off his family, so he won't have to share the inheritance. Later, it's revealed that Crispin is in on this too. The home invasion isn't a random attack, with the title-lending opening murder scene simply being a way to make it look like a random attack. Erin is an outsider in Crispin's family. His world is one of extensive family estates, where relatives squabble among themselves. She doesn't belong here. When it's revealed that she's a born survivor, that marks her even more as a target by the rich. It's rich people shit, petty in-fighting between millionaires that ends up trying to kill a normal person. (The later, inferior “Ready or Not” would do something extremely similar.)

Some visual symbolism further illustrates this point. Two of the killers that stalk Erin wear the masks of predatory animals, a tiger and a fox. (The remaining one wears a lamb mask and he isn't the first to die, presumably because that would've been too on-the-nose.) On a more basic level, these masks are an inspired choice. When making a slasher movie, you can't undersell the value of a good mask. They are cheap, plastic animal masks that look like they could've been bought from the dollar store. Yet they obscure the faces and eyes of their wearer, making them appear inhuman and hard-to-read. They are simple and immediately recognizable but distinct from any prior horror movie masks I've seen. No wonder they quickly became iconic, being referenced in video games and pro-wrestling.

“You're Next” also includes one of my favorite performances in a horror movie from last decade. Sharni Vinson plays Erin. From her first scene, her Australian accent makes an impression. She has an instantly relatable charm. This is important, since she goes through some pretty unexpected changes later in the film. By hooking us early on, we are ready to believe it when Erin reveals her amazing ability to fight back and survive. Vinson is totally capable as a determined survivor and fighter. Honestly, I don't know how she didn't become a big movie star after this. She's only done a few movies since this one and hasn't appeared in a feature film since 2016.

The film belongs to Vinson but the supporting cast is filled with familiar faces, from both Wingard's movies and other's. This was Barbara Crampton's big return to horror. While her role was small, it sure was nice to see her again and she panics extremely well. (It's been wonderful to see Crampton become a regular in the indie horror scene after this.) A.J. Bowen is perfectly condescending as Crispin. Nicholas Tucci shows an amusingly hammy side as Felix, the most duplicitous family member. “Pop Skull's” Lane Hughes is among the most prominently featured masked killers. Amy Seimetz and Joe Swanberg reappear as two of the other siblings. Wingard also shows his indie horror cred by casting Ti West and Larry Fessenden as special guest victims. 

Wingard has always worn his influences on his sleeve and, in “You're Next,” that's especially apparent. Obviously, the films of John Carpenter was on his mind here. You can see it in the siege film premise. And you can hear in the electronic pulses of the deliberate score, which marches through several sequences and retches up the tension. (When the score isn't deploying shrieking strings.) This is not the only inspired musical choice. The film plucked “Looking for the Magic,” an album cut from the critically acclaimed but largely overlooked Dwight Twiley Band, out of obscurity. The driving melody repeats all throughout the film and was a dreamy, inspired counterpoint to the carnage on-screen. 

When Liongates dropped “You're Next” into theaters in 2011, they sold it as just another home invasion movie. This might have been why the initial audience reaction was somewhat divisive. Not everyone enjoys having their expectations so expertly subverted. Yet, ultimately, this was the best way to sell the movie as to spoil the twist would've ruined the movie's best moments. For genre fans who do enjoy surprises and twists on formula, “You're Next” quickly became a cult classic. It certainly made me an Adam Wingard fan. I'm happy to say, even if you know the twist, the movie still holds up as fabulously entertaining and expertly assembled. [Grade: A-]