Programmer's Note

Family reunions can be a real bitch. All fun and amicable on the surface, yet underneath the tensions are ready to boil over. Welcome to the Davison clan’s opulent country house, where a get-together gets ugly and bloody — fast.

When Crispian Davison (A.J. Bowen) brings his new girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson) along to celebrate the wedding anniversary of his parents (Rob Moran and Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton), the worst thing either of them expects is some awkward conversation and an inadequate supply of whiskey. But an evening of sibling rivalry and icy barbs at the dinner table is shattered when an arrow smashes through the window. Enter a gang of killers in animal masks, armed with machetes, axes and a crossbow, who begin to hunt the family down with brutal precision.

Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett, who shocked audiences at last year’s Festival with their lo-fi serial-killer thriller A Horrible Way to Die, return to the scene of the crime with this solid shriek show tailor-made for Midnight Madness.

From the get-go, You’re Next grips the audience with a sense of dread and menace as the villains creep deep into the house. Shot in glorious widescreen, Wingard squeezes terror from the intimacy of the setting. Barrett’s sharply sketched personalities are brought to life with raw, honest performances from the cast, which reunites the leads of A Horrible Way to Die: AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, and Amy Seimetz. You’re Next evades the pitfalls of the home invasion thriller. Barrett deserves extra accolades for creating a solid female protagonist in Erin — who breaks the mold of the shy girl horror movies always save for last, fighting back from the moment the first blow is dealt — and for avoiding the subgenre’s tired sexual-threat cliché.

Get ready to duck the flying arrows and join the party as the Davisons arm themselves with kitchen knives, meat tenderizers, nails and other household utilities until the very bloody finish.