You're Next (2011) Shot Analysis

My favourite choice of scene from my horror research is from Adam Wingard’s “You’re Next” (2011).

This scene is shot from the point of view of the antagonist, being one of the murderers of a group of psycho killers. What I love about this specific shot is how we see one of the family members from the killers point of view, making us the audience feel uncomfortable. The killer’s reflection can be seen in in the window he’s looking through and the use of ambient lighting from the kitchen setting gives low-key lighting on the killer’s mask which is a rabbit; these represent the killers as almost parahuman.

While we’re watching this particular shot in the scene, as the handheld camera moves, the reflection comes into play as a collision cut, providing a jump scare to the audience.

These masks represent the historical context of animal sacrificing, where animals were sacrificed to maintain peace with a certain god in a religion. Although in this film it’s reversed and has the family members become the sacrifices until they retaliate back onto the animal mask wearing murderers. Animal Sacrificing also relates to when it was going to be reinstated in Jerusalem in 2010, through “Passover lambs” which is why the lamb seen in this shot is the main antagonist with the majority of the camera time.

Through the use of mise-en-scene in this shot, the toaster on the shelf shows the reflection of what we’re seeing and the view of the female victim in the shot, yet the window is completely black representing the theme of Voyuerism in the killer.