YOU’RE NEXT – Fantastic Fest Review

UPDATE: Aside from the film being picked up by Lionsgate just before it’s first (and only) screening at Fantastic Fest, YOU’RE NEXT garnered the following awards… Audience Award (Runner Up), Horror Feature – Best Picture; Best Director for Adam Wingard; Best Screenplay for Simon Barrett; and Best Actress for Sharni Vinson.

YOU’RE NEXT comes from writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard. This partnership created 2010’s A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, which introduced genre fans to a new force in genre filmmaking. Proving to be one of the most anticipated films of Fantastic Fest 2011, YOU’RE NEXT has already been acquired by Lionsgate, which is good news in that it will get a wide theatrical release, but bad news in that anyone reading this review who has not already seen the film will likely have to wait until 2012.

A young, foreign exchange student named Erin (Sharni Vinson) accompanies her college professor boyfriend Crispin (AJ Bowen) for his family reunion at their large house in the woods. Right away its apparent that this family doesn’t get along. When the family sits down for their first dinner together in years, the ensuing dialogue is as darkly comical as it is thick with tension, brimming with anger and rage brewing in a very shallow cup. The dinner scene sets up the family dynamic perfectly, where “dysfunctional” is an understatement.

Wingard and Barrett waste no time moving into the beef of the film, developing just enough back story to put the audience into place, allowing the viewer to fill in the blanks and piece together the mystery that unfolds during the ensuing carnage. YOU’RE NEXT features three unknown killers who crash the family dinner, all of whom wear animal Halloween masks: a fox, a sheep, and a tiger. The mask designs are simplistic but more real than cartoon, allowing the actors body language an increased level of creepiness, such as when a head is cocked, or even a long stare become far more frightening.

YOU’RE NEXT is primarily a home invasion horror flick, but also a black comedy. As the body count rises, the mystery slowly begins to unfold. Forced to take action where the family hesitates, Erin assumed the lead in the family’s struggle to survive, revealing at one point a simple unexpected explanation that perfectly sets her up as the strong female heroin we rarely see in cinema these days. Sharni Vinson proves herself as a starlet in the making for action and genre films, a goal she herself admits aspiring to in the Q&A that followed the screening. Vinson has all of the feminine bravado of ALIENS-era Sigourney Weaver combined with the capable damsel in distress quality of the HALLOWEEN-era Jamie Lee Curtis.

AJ Bowen’s and Joe Swanson‘s portrayal as rival brothers Crispin and Drake is sharp and biting, constantly at each others throats. Every line of dialogue Swanson utters is a gem, typically sarcastic, always judgmental and confrontational. Their mother Aubrey also stands out with a tremendous, emotionally charged supporting performance from Barbara Crampton. Rounding out the recognizable cast is a short, but noteworthy cameo role from filmmaker Ti West as Tariq, a role that serves as a genre wink, leading the dinner scene into the abrupt change of pace that holds for the remainder of the film.

YOU’RE NEXT is a great homage to slasher flicks and slapstick comedy (in the writer’s words, but I found the slapstick less apparent) but I also found connection to ’70s and ’80s era action cinema, from the strong heroin to the music for the film. In a similar sort of nostalgia, the creativity of the kills and style of violent choreography stood out as a major character in its own right, defining the fun-filled return of R-rated, in your face action/horror/comedy.