You're Next: The Anti-Horror Film

Have you ever asked the question, what would happen if someone competent was in a horror movie?

I mean how many times have you yelled at the screen, “Don’t go in there!”

Or how often do you witness the protagonist come up with clearly the dumbest plan possible? Here’s a hint, splitting up is never a good idea.

In fact, incompetence on part of the main characters is almost a prerequisite for the genre. It’s a solemn agreement between the filmmaker and the audience that these people are going to make some stupid decisions.

Otherwise, ninety percent of horror movies would only be ten minutes.

Because I knew if I broke down in some creepy little backwoods town, I’m not staying there, no matter how unsettlingly charming the locals are.

This isn’t to say all movies are like this. There are several examples where they’re dealing with forces beyond their control, but for the most part, it’s much easier to write the story with characters that don’t think that hard.

But, on occasion, movies will throw you for a loop.

I’m talking about a small little slasher film from 2011 titled You’re Next, starring Shami Vinson. It’s was originally an independent film, but after acclaim at the Toronto Film festival, Lionsgate distributed it.

You might remember the trailers. Men with different masks descending on a house where one by one they are taken out. It’s a staple for horror films.

Now, in case you haven’t seen it I recommend going to watch it before you get spoiled.

Last chance, anything you read beyond here is your own doing. I warned you.

At first glance, this looks like a movie you’ve seen a hundred times before. The rich and estranged Davison family is having a reunion. Erin and her professor/boyfriend Crispian drive into his family's vacation home and it has all the tension of a group that doesn’t quite get along.

Things really ramp up when a crossbow bolt kills one of the sibling’s partners.

And we’re off to the races. We’re clearly in a trapped in the house, slasher film. Cell phone coverage has been cut off. Two more people are gruesomely murdered. Crispian discovers that the car has been messed with and runs to get help.

They’re stuck, and now men with different animal masks are taking them all out one by one. They even paint “You’re Next” in blood after one of the kills. The family finds evidence that the killers have been living in the house for a while in anticipation of this killing spree.

In a rather predictable twist, you find out that the youngest siblings hired the killers to knock off the rest of their family to inherit the money.

And that’s when you settle in thinking you know exactly what’s about to happen. You’re gonna eat some popcorn, watch some murders, typical Friday night.

That’s when this movie comes to life. You see, Erin isn’t the run of the mill horror protagonist. She avoids one killer by stabbing him, and shows her resourcefulness by creating traps in to take out the masked men. You see, she grew up in a survivalist compound and has a rather impressive set of skills. She’s a horror movie villain’s worst nightmare. And she’s smart. Instead of getting lucky, she outthinks the killers, and the family once she realizes that the siblings are in on it.

Of course, there’s one twist left. Erin answers one of the siblings’ phones to hear that her boyfriend was in on it too. She kills him after he tries to bribe her.

In a cruel moment, we aren’t treated to a storybook ending, a police officer arrives to see Erin shoot her boyfriend and shoots her. The police officer is then killed by one of her traps.

Erin is what makes this movie great. And she’s what makes it an almost anti-horror movie.

How many times have you watched a horror movie and wonder why they don’t do this or that? In this movie, she brings the fight to them. Actually, it reminds me of a rated R Home Alone. It's fun to see her fight back instead of just hiding, or waiting for the next person to be killed.

And it’s not like she just gets lucky. The villains had a good plan. They just didn’t count on their brother’s girlfriend being John Wick.

It’s a fun and entertaining change up for a horror film and I can’t recommend it enough. The only bad part is next time you watch a home invasion movie you’ll be sitting there wishing they had half the capabilities of Erin.