“It Comes at Night ” has the title of a horror film and, at times, the mood of one, but it is far too restrained to get the juices of the genre crowd going.
That’s not an accident or a mistake, however. More likely, it’s a cheeky riff on the leaden, generic titles of so many jump-scare films before it.
The “It” in writer and director Trey Edward Shults’ “It Comes at Night” might be the deadly disease that’s turned an isolated family into ruthless survivalists or the actual intruder that upends their lives; but it could just as well be the crippling and overwhelming power of doubt and paranoia. If that’s any indication, it shouldn’t be a surprise then that “It Comes at Night” is a psychological thriller that is more likely to haunt than scare.
‘It Comes At Night’
› Rating: R for violence, disturbing images and language.› Running time: 97 minutes.
That’s not to say there aren’t some moments that might make you yelp. Shults, in only his second feature following his splashy debut with the family psychodrama “Krisha,” stylishly and effectively builds tension and mystery in this stripped-down experiment that crescendos occasionally into the stuff of nightmares.