Slasher Saturday: You’re Next
Sharni Vinson takes the fight to the killers in the viscerally entertaining You're Next.
What happens when Home Alone meets horror.
What’s You’re Next About?
Erin (Sharni Vinson) joins her boyfriend Crispin (A.J. Bowen) for a family reunion weekend in the familial mansion. She’s prepared to navigate the typical terrors of a first family meeting — tension between siblings, intrusive questions from mom and dad — but dinner gets extra stressful when a group of masked men fire a crossbow into the dining room, killing someone.
It seems Crispin’s family is the target of a group of psychotic killers, but they may have picked the wrong house.
Unlike the rest of the family, Erin isn’t cowering in the corner screaming. In fact, it might just be her time to shine. Raised by doomsday preppers, Erin knows how to trap, kill, and fight her way out of any situation. As Erin organizes the family, these masked figures might be in for a surprise…
What Makes You’re Next Good?
On its surface, You’re Next is a bog standard home invasion horror movie. We’ve got the opening murder sequence, the masked maniacs, and the family scrambling to survive. But director Adam Wingard subverts expectations with a leading lady that’s more Sarah Connor than Sidney Prescott.
A final girl that might be more of a threat than the killers is a refreshing update to the slasher genre. Erin is sweet, if somewhat shuttered when we first see her, but as soon as a threat presents itself, she drops the polite act and a feral woman emerges. She also quickly and efficiently constructs some horrendously violent traps that will have you thinking she watched Home Alone as a child and took it to heart. While the killers might be donning sheep’s masks, it turns out Erin might be a wolf in sheep’s clothing too.
Vinson’s performance is viscerally thrilling. She’s calm and collected when offering up orders to the bewildered family, but when confronted by someone trying to harm her she’s a snarling beast.
As a result, the action is bloody, but also satisfying. If you can, screen this movie in a crowd, so you can cheer on Erin with everyone else.
The film also offers up lots of laughs to balance out the horror. Wingard called in some favors and the cast is stacked with fellow directors Ti West, Joe Swanberg, and even the film’s screenwriter Simon Barett gets in on the fun, as the tiger-masked killer. The group all has a wry sense of humor, and the result is a family that’s happy to snark about which sibling is responsible, even if they’re doing it over a body. The result is a film that could be an awkward family dramedy, if people stopped getting stabbed and bludgeoned to death.
Verdict
A fun riff on both the final girl and home invasion genre, You’re Next is a great movie for anyone who likes a protagonist with some grit to counterbalance the gore.
