One of the biggest buzz films at this year's fest is Adam Wingard's followup to A Horrible Way To Die (2010). You're Next, which screened last night, absolutely enthralled the crowd with it's deft mix of horror, gore and comedy giving a very talented cast a serious showcase. The plot centers around a group of siblings who meet their parents at a remote country home for a weekend anniversary celebration. Together with their boyfriends and girlfriends the siblings try their best to reconnect and avoid conflict but just as family tensions explode over dinner a mysterious group of masked figures launch a siege attack of the home. Soon bodies are piling up faster than the family members can insult one another. Luckily in the middle of the panic an unlikely heroine arises to kick buck, blender heads and tenderize scalps.
It's safe to say that this year's most dynamic new scream queen is Sharni Vinson She absolutely knocks it out of the park as Erin. Sharno has been around awhile but when you're best known work is in Step Up 3D (2010) a major star turn like this is somewhat unexpected. She's funny, her timing is impeccable and she's never anything less than dangerously believable as the girlfriend with a secret past and a yen for revenge Also turning in career high performances are AJ Bowen and Joe Swanberg as Crispian and Jake, a pair of bickering siblings. The two really are absolutely hysterical expertly throwing around one liners that any brother or sister would be proud to sting their sib with. Other cast members of note include Stuart Gordon Muse Barbara Crampton (Castle Freak [19995], From Beyond [1986], Re-Animator [1985]) as the family patriarch and, more surprisingly, House of the Devil (2009), The Innkeepers (2011) director Ti West as Tariq the filmmaker boyfriend of one of the sisters.
The home invasion sub genre has seen some very good films over the years and the house these people run around in provides all sorts of opportunities for suspense and chase that the Wingard doesn't waste. Some of the films cleverest gags have to do with booby traps that either do or don't work and it was a pure cinema joy to watch the audience I was with act loudly in unison a number of times during the screening as they wound up exactly where Wingard and cast was trying to take them. Gotcha! Got me too.
The kills in this film are clever enough to satisfy any gore fan and more importantly add to rather than distract from the film as a whole. This is movie bent on surprising the viewer and writer Simon Barrett (also the scribe for the neglected minor gem Dead Birds [2004]) is able to pull off some unlikely moments. Most importantly You're Next trades on the promises of it's goofball title fully and thoroughly. Last years A Horrible Way To Die promised good things from Wingard. But You're Next is so much more assured, so much cleaner and that after watching You're Next my only question for Wingard and his team is "What next?"