You're Next

You're Next
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Wingard
Produced by	Keith Calder Jessica Wu Simon Barrett Kim Sherman
Written by	Simon Barrett
Starring	Sharni Vinson Nicholas Tucci Wendy Glenn A. J. Bowen Joe Swanberg
Music by	Jasper Justice Lee Kyle McKinnon Mads Heldtberg Adam Wingard
Cinematography	Andrew D. Palermo
Edited by	Adam Wingard
Production company	HanWay Films Snoot Entertainment
Distributed by	Lionsgate
Release dates	September 10, 2011 (2011-09-10) (TIFF)[1][2] August 23, 2013 (2013-08-23) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes[3]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1 million[4]
Box office	$26.9 million[5]

You're Next is a 2011 American slasher film directed by Adam Wingard, written by Simon Barrett and starring Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A. J. Bowen and Joe Swanberg. The plot concerns a family under attack by a group of masked assailants during their wedding anniversary getaway.

The film had its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness program^[1][2] and was theatrically released on August 23, 2013, in the United States. The film grossed over $26 million at the box office.

Plot

The film opens with a couple being murdered in their house by assailants wearing various animal masks.

Erin accompanies her boyfriend Crispian Davison to his family reunion at their rural Missouri vacation home, adjacent to the property of the murdered couple. Present are Crispian's parents Aubrey and Paul, his older brother Drake and Drake's wife Kelly, his younger siblings Felix and Aimee, Felix's girlfriend Zee, and Aimee's boyfriend Tariq. During an argument at the dinner table between Drake and Crispian, Tariq and Drake are shot by crossbow bolts from outside the house, Tariq fatally and Drake moderately wounded. With their cell phone signals jammed by the attackers, Aimee runs out the front door to get help, but runs into a garrote wire which slashes her throat. Crispian leaves the house to find help. Aubrey is brought upstairs to her bedroom by Paul; when Paul leaves the room, Fox Mask appears from under the bed and kills Aubrey. The rest of the family rushes upstairs to find Aubrey dead with the words "You're next" scrawled on the wall in blood.

Erin begins securing the house and texts 911. She encounters Tiger Mask and evades his attack, wounding him in the process. Kelly returns to the bedroom and discovers Fox Mask still hiding under the bed. She panics and runs to the neighboring home. After pounding on the window for help, she gets inside but discovers the murdered couple and is soon killed by a maul-wielding Lamb Mask. Back at the house, Tiger Mask once again fails to murder Erin and is in turn killed by her with a meat tenderizer; it is later revealed that Tiger Mask is actually Lamb Mask's brother. Lamb Mask finds Drake, but Erin stabs him with a screwdriver and he retreats.

While exploring the house, Paul finds evidence that the killers had been staying in the house for a while. He tries to tell Zee and Felix, but Fox Mask appears from behind and slashes his throat. It is revealed that Felix and Zee hired the assassins to murder the family and collect their inheritance. Felix lures Drake to the basement and stabs his brother. Meanwhile, Erin and Zee set up traps together and Erin explains that she grew up on a survivalist compound where she learned her combat and survival skills. Zee is about to attempt to kill Erin, but is interrupted. Erin overhears an argument between Felix, Zee, Fox Mask, and Lamb Mask, and takes the chance to escape from the house. Lamb Mask pursues Erin but she kills him. Erin returns to the house and sets up a trap at the front door. Seeing Fox Mask enter through a window, Erin sets up an ambush in the basement and kills Fox Mask. With their hired assassins dead, Zee and Felix enter the house to kill Erin themselves but she manages to brutally kill them both. Crispian calls Felix's phone but inadvertently reveals his involvement in the scheme to Erin, not realizing Erin has killed Felix and taken his phone. Crispian returns to the house and, ignoring his attempts to bribe her with money, Erin fatally stabs him in the neck and eye out of anger.

A policeman arrives and shoots Erin in the shoulder, having seen her kill Crispian. After calling for backup, he attempts to enter the home but is accidentally killed by Erin's ingenious trap at the front door as she yells to warn him. The credits imply that Erin is questioned by the police as a suspect in the killings.

Cast

Production

Barrett wrote the film after Wingard noted to him that he wanted to do a home invasion movie, noting that they were the only films that still truly frightened him.^[6] From there, Barrett wrote a script inspired by Agatha Christie mysteries as well as a combination of screwball comedies and chamber mysteries.^[6] Barrett would later note that Bay of Blood was probably in the back of his mind when writing the film, although he only realized this after the fact.^[6]

The film was shot in 2011 at a mansion in Columbia, Missouri. The filming process took place over four weeks, and shooting consisted mostly of night shoots filmed from 7pm to 7am.^[7]

Release

Sharni Vinson (center) with "guardians" at a 2013 film showing in Miami

You're Next premiered on September 10, 2011 at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival^[8][1] and opened at other film festivals later.

On September 21, 2011, Lionsgate announced that it had acquired American, British, and Canadian distribution rights to the film for just $2 million.^[11][12] The film was part of the competition during the 20th edition of the international festival of fantastic movies at Gerardmer (France) in February 2013, and it won the Syfy prize of the event.

Box office

The film opened in the United States on August 23, 2013 and earned $7,020,196 in its opening weekend. The film closed on October 17, having grossed $18,494,006 in the domestic box office and $8,401,475 overseas for a worldwide total of $26,895,418.^[13]

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 75%,based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus states, "You're Next's energetic and effective mix of brutal gore and pitch black humor will please horror buffs and beyond."^[14] Metacritic gives the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[15]

Vanity Fair's Jordan Hoffman called You're Next "one of the more entertaining horror pictures of the last 10 years."^[16] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, praising "Wingard's canny knack for leavening his characters' gory demises with sick laughs and clever Rube Goldberg twists (razor-sharp piano wire hasn't been used this well since 1999's Audition). It's like Ordinary People meets Scream" and describing the final shot as "deliciously twisted".^[17] R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine gave the film 4 stars, stating the film "brazenly merges the home-invasion thriller with the dysfunctional family dramedy".^[18] Joshua Rothkopf (Time Out New York) called the film "solidly satisfying" and a "minor triumph", although he commented that the film was, in general, unoriginal.^[19] Matt Glasby of Total Film called the film "funny and tense, rather than hilarious and terrifying", and complimented the film for being a "good" horror-comedy.^[20] Barbara VanDenburgh (Arizona Republic) gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating the film was not "very scary" and that its "budget for red food coloring was no doubt higher than the one for script doctoring", although she complimented the film's score and "gruesome" conclusion.^[21] Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post said the movie "is at times bloodily entertaining. And if the central plot twist isn't all that clever, at least the movie offers some motivation for its mayhem,"^[22] while Jane Horwitz wrote for the same newspaper, "For slasher/horror fans 17 and older, You're Next may provide sufficient homicidal entertainment."^[23] Liam Lacey (The Globe and Mail) gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, describing it as "well-executed" but "rudimentary".^[24]

A review from St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the film unoriginal,^[25] while Rene Rodriguez (The Miami Herald) panned the film, calling it "practically insulting", and dubbed the premise "idiotic".^[26] John DeFore (The Hollywood Reporter) wrote that the film's characters were mostly unsympathetic and that more humor would have improved the film.^[27] Stephen Whitty of The Newark Star-Ledger, in a review for The Portland Oregonian, gave the film a C+ rating, agreeing it was unoriginal and uninventive, comparing it to The Purge and The Last House on the Left.^[28] Scott Bowles of USA Today gave You're Next a negative review, describing it as repetitive and stating that it did not have a purpose.^[29]

Total Film placed Erin (Sharni Vinson) at number one on their list of "50 Most Bad-Ass Female Horror Leads".^[30]

Home media

The film was released via video on demand on December 27, 2013, and via DVD and Blu-ray on January 14, 2014.

See also

• List of films featuring home invasions

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: You're Next

• You're Next at the Internet Movie Database
• You're Next at Box Office Mojo
• You're Next at Rotten Tomatoes
• You're Next at Metacritic