Movie Review: You’re Next

Survival horror movies have a certain look and feel to them from the very beginning.  In this movie, a family meets up for their parent’s 35th anniversary dinner.  What happens turns the table on the happy family reunion with one well-aimed, well-timed arrow.  The story starts off following a couple who are being hunted by unknown assailants.  The scene turns to an older couple coming to an empty, old house, getting it ready for the kids that would be arriving that night and the following morning.

The celebratory dinner starts off with a few awkward introductions and the family quickly rekindles the feud between two of the three sons.  The argument is cut short when the only daughter’s boyfriend is shot in the forehead with an arrow.  After that, the survival instinct of only one member of the dinner kicks in and she engages the people attacking them, doing her best to keep everyone alive.

The gore is quite extensive in this movie, not to the level of some movies, but enough to make you look away at regular intervals.  What makes this movie somewhat memorable is that there is a real story under the mayhem.  In the footsteps of movies like The Purge, the modern horror movie is now combined with gore and story, to give you something to be engaged in besides being grossed out.  I can’t say it was an amazing movie, but it kept me guessing for a bit and when the reveal happened, how the movie ended was still surprising.  For $6, it was well worth seeing.