HOME SWEET HOME // A FILM REVIEW OF "YOU'RE NEXT"

BY MATEO MORENO

Horror films seem to be flying at us at an alarming rate.  When one is popular, you're almost guaranteed to see a sequel in about...say, five minutes.  Often the shocks seem the same, yet we still keep lining up.  However, every so often a horror film will scare some originality out of the genre (see The Decent, Cabin in the Woods, The Conjuring).  Welcome the latest film to actual surprise, shock, and produce genuine laughs as it racks up the body count around you.  And not a single big name actor in sight.  YOU'RE NEXT follows Crispian (AJ Bowen) and Erin (Sharni Vinson), a couple on their way to Crispian's parents home for a family get together.  All of Crispian's siblings will be there and disorder is absolutely expected.  Yet not the kind that ends up coming their way when a group of animal masked killers break into their home and start picking them off one by one.  Worst.  Family.  Reunion.  Ever.

Yes we've all seen this before but writer Simon Barrett and Director Adam Wingard (both of V/H/S/2 fame) keep the thrills coming with twist after twist and just as many laughs as there are gruesome body killings.  True, the film starts off very slow.  In fact, the first 20 minutes had me actually worrying that the hype around the film was just that - "hype."  Yet right around the time the family all arrives and sits around the dinner table for a very funny "getting to know you" scene the movie skyrockets off and doesn't let go from there.  In fact, minutes later the carnage starts and doesn't let up, even through the final frame.  There's a lot of great moment from the cast (Joe Swanberg is delightfully slimy) but the major find her is Sharni Vinson.  As the Aussie girlfriend coming to meet her boyfriends family, she tackles the film and knocks it out of the park, fully embodying the genre and morphing into a Zoe Bell/Gina Carano esque badass.  The audience I sat in fully cheered her on as her attackers never quite learned that you just don't mess with the quiet, sweet, pissed off Aussie.  You're Next takes a bit of time getting off the ground but once it does, it's a smart, bloody, and clever shock.  Never again will you look at animal masks the same.

MATEO'S GRADE: B

Directed by Adam Wingard Written by Simon Barrett Starring Sharni Vinson, AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, Joe Swanberg, Margaret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Rob Moran, Barbara Crampton, L.C. Holt, Simon Barrett, Lane Hughes  Rated R for Sexual Content, Adult Language, Graphic Violence, & Brief Nudity NOW IN THEATRES NATIONWIDE

BOTTOM LINE: Stick through the first 20 minutes.  I promise, it gets better.  Much, much better.

V/H/S/2 - TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Most of the time, when a horror sequel is rushed out to production it suffers creatively.  I’m happy to say that this is not the case with V/H/S/2, the new gory, hilarious follow up to the anthology hit from 2012.  Two of the creative team return from the original (Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard) and bring along several fresh faces to the proceedings.  The plot is thus: A private investigator is hired to find a missing person and along with his girlfriend sets off to do just that.  But when stumbling into a vacant home, they find stacks and stacks of old videotapes, which the girlfriend starts to watch.  As she does, we see each of the tape’s contents (four short horror films), and each one affects her and the house in various ways.

Barrett himself directs the narrative structure “Tape 49” which successfully wraps all the stories into one.  Wingard tackles the first short, titled “Phase 1 Clinical Trials,” documenting a man who becomes the test subject of a retinal implant and starts seeing things.  Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project) co-directs “A Ride in the Park” with Gregg Hale which follows a couple biking into a very unsafe park.  The most out there offering is Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans’s “Safe Haven,” telling the story of four filmmaker friends who want to shed light on a Cult Leader by filming at his base camp and get in way over their heads.  My favorite of the shorts comes from Jason Eisener and is called “Slumber Party Alien Abduction.”  It tells the story from the POV of two brothers, their sister, and a group of their friends on a weekend left alone at home.  Suddenly, something appears outside and starts to wreak havoc on all of the kids.  This particular short brings shades of early Spielberg and JJ Abrams, and is less a horror film rather a very smart sci-fi short.  Possibly the best example of “don’t judge a book by its cover.”  The rest of the shorts all work in various degrees, ranging from creepy (Tape 49) to silly fun (A Ride in the Park), inspired (Slumber Party Alien Abduction), and plain out bat shit crazy (Safe Haven).  You don’t need to have even seen the original to jump in on this one, and trust me, it’s a lot of fun.

VERDICT: A GOOD CHOICE

Written by Simon Barrett, Jamie  Nash, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans, Jason Eisener, John Davies Directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evens, Jason Eisener Starring Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L.C. Holt, Kelsy Abbott, Hannah Hughes Rated R Content Disclaimer (Adult Situations, Adult Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity)  For ticket and screening information: http://tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets

BOTTOM LINE: Often clever, often crazy, and always entertaining.