You’re Next (Movie review)

Most movies have their pros and cons, then there are movies that are just painfully awful and there is no silver lining in sight. You’re Next happens to be one of these films.

Scene from You're Next/ Liongate
Scene from You’re Next/ Liongate

You’re Next was originally made in 2011 and appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival the same year.  Two years later the film was released in theaters on August 23rd, 2013. It stars Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, and AJ Bowen. Written by Simon Barrett and directed by Adam Wingard, it is somewhat painful to review You’re Next, as CrypticRock is a fan of their films V/H/S (2012) and V/H/S /2 (2013).

The premise of the movie takes place during a 35th wedding anniversary family dinner celebration at a mansion in the middle of nowhere. The group consists of a mother, father, 3 brothers and their younger sister, along with all the siblings’ partners. No one at the dinner party gets along and everyone has some kind of attitude for no apparent reason. During dinner a family spat breaks out and the sister’s boyfriend sees something through the window. When he goes to investigate, someone shoots an arrow from a crossbow through his head. The entire family is now under attack by sniper-like killers wearing animal masks. The movie continues with multiple unexplained killings of the family members and their partners.

Scene from You're Next/ Liongate
Scene from You’re Next/ Liongate

The acting is beyond terrible in You’re Next and the scenes become comical as the ridiculousness unfolds in front of your eyes. Luckily the older brother’s girlfriend, Erin, was raised on a “survival boot camp”, so she is able to use those skills to MacGyver a bunch of different traps to keep herself alive. Nothing about this movie makes sense and when you actually find out the reason behind all the murder, it makes even less sense. The reason for the madness ends up being the older and younger brothers hired ex-soldiers to kill their entire family so they could get the inheritance from their rich father. They promise these soldiers money from the inheritance for the massacre, but sadly for these soldiers they didn’t have an upfront hire for kill policy. Erin is able to take out all the animal-masked killers along with the younger brother and his girlfriend, who at that point were the only remaining survivors. When Erin realizes her boyfriend is part of this mess as well she kills him too. This pretty much sums up the 95 minute film, that to some viewers maybe a waste of valuable time. The biggest shocker about You’re Next is that it actually made it into theaters. CrypticRock gives You’re Next ½ a star out of 5 stars.

Liongate
Liongate

Review Written by Mindy Ganz

You’re Next was release date Tuesday January 14, 2014 on Blu-ray & DVD

 

Like the in-depth, diverse coverage of Cryptic Rock? Help us in support to keep the magazine going strong for years to come with a small donation.

Mindy GanzAuthor posts

Avatar for Mindy Ganz

No comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *