You're Next (2011) 1st Movie Review

You’re Next

Horror Genre Analysis (2011)

Director: Adam Wingard

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Plot: During a wedding anniversary get-away, the Davison family becomes under attack after a gang of mysterious killers attempts to kill them. Until they learn one victim has a secret talent for fighting back.

My two favourite scenes

The first scene that impressed me is the first scene in the film, as it starts off with the theme of sex and the taboo we understand something will happen due to the common use of this theme in horror films. The female is being watched and we can tell due to the point of view shots looking through the window at her.

She closes the doors while the camera focuses on a wind chime, keeping her blurred in the background to show she’s looking at it worryingly. A montage of close-ups of a video player showing the female is playing a song while the player reads “DISC REPEAT” and shows the time the song is “Looking for the Magic” by Dwight Twilley Band. This becomes an important factor to the film as another female character later on in the film goes round to borrow milk, while no-one answers and the same song with the same montage of close-ups are shown, also when a female character escapes to this house this same process is shown representing how long these two characters at the beginning have been there. As she starts the music a montage of close ups of her pouring a drink, drowned out by the shower in certain shots of the male. The female notices the lights of her porch turn on from the reflection in the mirror, and the shots then focus on the male character, as he exits the shower and notices writing reversed on the windows, which the camera then pans down to the females body laying outside the porch.  Both collision cutting and contrapuntal music is used as the male backs up, the camera panning as he backs up and when he turns the murderer stands in front of him, when the collision cut starts.

The second scene is where they’re under attack. The family are at the dinner table talking, the scene begins quite while the shots of the characters and their reactions slowly begin to pick up and an arguments breaks out, which is one example of collision cutting. Straight after, one male character notices something out of the window and approaches it, leading our attention off the argument and to this guy. Something shoots through the glass and the argument slowly dies down after people notice, going back to quite until we see the character shot with an arrow in his head and collision cutting happens again. My favourite part of the scene is how it emphasis the title of “You’re Next”, as some characters are getting shot we keep wondering who will be next while point of view shots from the murderer holding a bow and arrow target the characters through the window. This whole scene compiles of smaller collision cuts as well as the overall collision cutting of the peaceful dinner contrasted with the threat of the psycho killers. We also learn that Erin is the female hero due to her being the main character the shots focus on. The montage of close-ups of each character’s face quickens the more times an arrow is shot through the window. Foreshadowing is shown when an arrow is shot at the family portrait, showing either the fact the family is crumbling or a certain person to be targeted.

Watching the film helped me understand this genre of filmmaking as this film’s genres of both Horror and Thriller are executed perfectly to make the audience scared. This film uses point of view shots from the killers that are outside a lot to make us feel uncomfortable, we know who they’re watching and targeting. The film also uses low-key lighting in a majority of scenes to make the murderers look more sinister and threatening while wearing goat masks. Collision cutting in the film gets across the genre of thriller, making the viewers jump at unexpected times through the use of short takes and amplified sounds.

Characters and Representation

In the film, the antagonists are the mysterious group of psycho serial killers which are also fast moving which seem to be attacking the family for no reason at all. Due to the introduction of the film where the same killers attack two people which are and were not important to the plot.

There are multiple victims from the family throughout the film as they are being killed off one by one, emphasizing the film’s title of “You’re Next”. The victims entail of both male and female victims, while there is one “final girl” from all the family members shown.

Mise-En-Scene

There is limited restricted narration in the film and a main example of this is the intro to the film, where the male character is pushed to the floor and attacked while the contrapuntal music plays. After then Body Horror is shown in every attack, making the killers seem even more “Psycho”. The house alone seems creepy and enclosed as when one of the characters is asked to collect milk from the neighbours, she walks a while to get there, telling us there house seems to be in the middle of nowhere. It becomes even more so when the power cuts out. Low-key lighting is used in this case making the villains hide amongst the darkness and shadows, adding to the theme of creepy locations. We notice at times the masks of the villains which are always the first thing we see, either in reflections of windows or mirrors as they hide in low-key lighting.

Sound

Both parallel and contrapuntal music is used in the films, contrapuntal being used at the start of the film when the female plays the diegetic song “Looking for the Magic” which is also bridge music in some parts of the film. This song is played a couple more times throughout the film when characters approach the house, showing how long the bodies have been left there while also showing representing the insanity of the Psycho villain. Another example of this is when one of the female family members escapes the house, and as she runs to the house we hear the music drowned out by the glass, but as she’s pushed through the glass the music is played clearly. Also in this scene, the song playing says "Because a photograph is, like an hourglass out of time, and then I never laughed, because I never had no time" the word photograph may refer to the fact the family photo was shot at with an arrow, while the hourglass of time represents the family is near the end of their time.  Contrapuntal music is also played when the female hero Erin sets a trap, the music is fast paced which fits the scene as she needs to set the trap quickly before she’s attacked so she’s hurrying; this same tune is played after she sadistically attacks one of the killers. This may represent her heart beat, as she’s hurrying to set a trap alongside killing one of the psycho killers rapidly.

Editing

This film uses a lot of montages to get both the mood and pace of a scene set. One of my favourite examples of this is when the video player at the beginning of the film is turned on, close-up shots of the digital display showing that the song is on repeat and this montage is played again every time the house is approached. Collision Cutting in this film always gets across the action, an example of this is the dinner scene, where they are all talking, collision cuts are used twice here, once for the argument and another after the argument dies down after a character is shot to when they are all reacting an multiple arrows are shot. Quick to slow montages are also edited through the use of slow motion to show the pace of the scene and to capture the action, one of my favourite uses of this is when a female victim gets ready to run out of the door to a car to find safety, but tension is built up when she begins to run as it’s in slow motion, we see the emotion on everyone’s face as she runs. As the door is opened, the viewers are told by the characters that the killers won’t be expecting any of them to run outside full speed, but when the slow motion ends, the character runs into string, aimed at her neck, destroying the hope and tension built up in us.

Cinematography

Close-ups are a main element in both horror films and this film as it doesn’t just set the mood and atmosphere but also represents the tense feeling in the characters. Close-ups are used in almost every montage of the film, emphasizes the change of moods and atmosphere. A close up of Erin removing a piece of glass from her leg, makes the body horror more grotesque as we feel we are too close for comfort. Alongside close-ups is the use of point-of-view shots, which are limited to both the psycho killers as they watch the house from outside, while also aiming their weapons and Erin’s character, when she’s keeping an eye out for the killers with limited view which lead to jump scares.

Themes

Sex is played out twice in the film, at the start of the film before the two characters are murdered and later on in the film when two of the family members are revealed to be in on the psycho killers plan. The taboo is faintly shown when the female half to these two sinister characters wants to have sex next to the corpse of the male half’s mother.

Threat to family is also a theme represented through this film as the main idea is the home invasion to the family, which is an illegal event in which people do in real life to steal or attack the house.

Narrative

The film ends on what would seem to be happy, as the female heroine has survived, but is then shot by an officer after he thinks she is the one the police were called for. This supposedly happy ending is depleted by both a comedic and grotesque way to start credits as the trapped she set up; intended on the killers is activated on the only officer there. We are unaware of how many of the mysterious Pyscho group there were, this alongside the survival of the female hero may leave an open ending.

Ideologies

The female hero Erin seems to be sadistic due to her actions when she retaliates on her psycho killers and attacks them rapidly and repeatedly even beyond death. An example of this is half way through the film when she walks into the dining room with weapons telling the other family members “we should each carry a weapon”, commonly we’d be settled and not expect anything due to the lack of built tension and sightings of the killer, but the psycho killer jumps through the window in slow motion and makes an attempt to kill Erin with an axe, which she rolls away from and kicks the murderer and killing him, but the frustration and anger leads her to manipulating his face with her weapon. Her strength is also represented through the use of the close-up shots of her nailing nails through a plank of wood with a hammer; the close-ups show her strength with a phallic weapon and her place of being the hero.

I would like to include these from the film in my own trailer:

• Intro with contrapuntal and collision cutting
• Amplified sound effects
• Using reflections (from windows and mirrors) to show the antagonist

And I would avoid these in my own trailer:

• Overly using body horror because it can look overly comedic

The best aspect and most enjoyable moment, other than Adam Wingard’s classic style of blood-soaked body-count films, in the film is the plot twist, which explained why the attack was focused on that family and what the result and reward would be for it. Recreating this in a trailer will be hard without ruining a story in a trailer, but I plan on finding my way around this through the use of dialogue.