You’re Next, 2011.
Directed by Adam Wingard.
Starring Sharni Vinson, Barbara Crampton, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Ti West, Nicholas Tucci, and Larry Fessenden.
SYNOPSIS:
A family reunion turns into a fight for survival as the occupants of the family home are picked off by masked assailants.
For their latest 4K UHD box set Second Sight have turned their talents to presenting Adam Wingard’s 2011 slasher revival hit You’re Next in a similar way to their release of the director’s 2014 movie The Guest a few years back, which is quite welcome as these days Wingard is better known for his overblown Godzilla/Kong movies and it is always fun to go back to a filmmakers earlier works to see how they hold up.
Creeping in just as the torture porn boom of the 2000s was heading towards terminal decline, but before the more cerebral psychological horrors of the following decade hit, You’re Next is a movie that pays homage to the slasher movies of the 1970 & ‘80s – people trapped in one location being picked off by masked killers, complete with gory kills, gratuitous nudity and a dark streak of humour – but is also very much a movie of its time, complete with extremely unlikeable characters, choppy editing, sickness-inducing handheld camerawork and a knowing wink at the audience, who are no doubt as clued up as the filmmakers on how these movies normally play out.
And viewing You’re Next in 2024, it is obvious how much the modern slasher movie has taken from this one, especially when it comes to filling the movie with characters you want to see get a crossbow bolt through the forehead (remember when audiences rooted for the innocent victims, rather than cheering their demise?), and containing villains that are as non-descript as the first couple of casualties in a slasher movie normally are, although 2008s The Strangers is probably more to blame for that. However, this movie is less about the masked hunters on the outside of the family home than it is about the parasites that are on the inside, as family members come together for a reunion, old grudges come to the surface and sibling rivalries drive the decision making when the assault begins.
The casting of You’re Next is one of its greatest strengths, most notably for bringing back scream queen Barbara Crampton to the horror scene, and her presence as the family matriarch Aubrey Davison not only gives the movie some serious genre credibility but also allowed the actress to begin the second phase of her career as a fully-formed icon – just check out how many acting credits she has accumulated since she made this movie. Also featured are indie movie regulars AJ Bowen and Joe Swanberg, filmmakers Ti West – who was fresh from directing The Innkeepers and about to dive into the V/H/S and The ABCs of Death anthologies alongside Adam Wingard – and Larry Fessenden, but the star of the show is Sharni Vinson as Erin, the girlfriend of AJ Bowen’s Crispian Davison, one of four Davison siblings, and a character in a slasher/home invasion movie who actually makes sensible decisions when it all hits the fan. I won’t go into any more detail here, but the cover art on the box set tells you all you need to know.
The limited edition box set features both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, and if truth be told there isn’t that much to tell between them as the movie has been given a 4K restoration so it’ll be down to how good your home cinema is that will determine how to get the best out of each format, and unlike The Guest, You’re Next is not a brightly-lit neon extravaganza, instead being quite dark and muted in its colour palette. Still, the detail is sharp and clear, and whenever anyone is killed you do get to see the full extent of what is going on.
You also get two audio commentaries – one a brand new track with Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett, the other an archival track with Wingard, Barrett, Sharni Vinson and Barbara Crampton – and a stack of interviews from the likes of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett, AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg , producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder, actor Amy Seimetz and production designer Tom Hammock, plus an insightful look at how You’re Next plays into the slasher sub-genre with Tim Coleman. All of this comes in the usual rigid slipcase with art cards and a collector’s booklet featuring essays from various critics and academics, so for consistency Second Sight have done it again.
As with all of these limited edition box sets, you cannot fault the quality of the product or the care and attention that has gone into making it, so collector’s are likely to snap this up pretty quickly, although there are standard 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions also being released if you do miss out. As a movie, You’re Next is a fun, rewatchable horror movie that has obvious stylistic and thematic ties to more modern movies like Ready or Not, Secret Santa and The Hunt, and also pays homage to past classics in equal measure. The kills are graphic and gnarly – it isn’t often you see a kitchen blender used to such gruesome effect – and the uneven tone actually plays into the movie’s favour, although the jittery camerawork is a little excessive, even for 2011 standards but especially when viewed through a 2024 lens, when everything in the genre is slick, smooth and wide.
Nevertheless, despite some shortcomings that were symptomatic of the era it was made in, You’re Next is still a good time and this is another winning set you will want to own, if only to sit alongside The Guest on your expanding box set shelf.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
