You’re Next review.
It’s been ten years since You’re Next hit theaters, bringing us a clever twist on the home invasion movie and an all-time great final girl.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
You’re Next
Directed by Adam Wingard
Written by Simon Barrett
Starring Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, Amy Seimetz and Barbara Crampton
You’re Next Review
In the ten years since You’re Next arrived in theaters (following a long wait post 2011 completion/festival debut) …we still haven’t seen anything quite like it. Marketed as a home invasion movie, there was something more beneath its surface. Its legacy, ten years on, resides in the creation of perhaps cinema’s finest of post-modern final girls. Its effectiveness hangs on many other things going incredibly right. Let’s look back at the home invasion movie that is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Any discussion of You’re Next begins with Erin (Sharni Vinson). She is at the center of what makes this a memorable, and important, film. Arguably the best final girl of the last decade…or two…or three…or… Erin is the film’s secret weapon. The reveal that she is a trained, resourceful woman fully capable of taking down a troupe of intruders single handedly changes the game. While the poster has you believing you are in for one kind of movie…Erin ensures you are in for something else entirely. This isn’t a typical home invasion movie. This is a “you messed with the wrong person” movie. Erin narratively has more in common with John Wick than Laurie Strode. Is it any wonder that the next time we’d see Laurie Strode in a post-You’re Next world the entire character had changed to more closely resemble this?
Erin isn’t the first strong female protagonist in horror or any other genre. Buffy had finished doing a seven-year stint on TV a decade before You’re Next finally hit theaters. So, what makes Erin stand out? For starters…her capability isn’t her surface feature. This isn’t a story presented as what it ends up being. It’s not sold on watching a badass final girl outwit and destroy the bad guys. What she is capable of is unknown to anyone in the film. The screenplay doesn’t introduce Erin as having this particular set of skills. It’s not her reason for existence. Second…she kicks all kinds of ass in a realistic, natural way. She’s not the chosen one. She doesn’t have superpowers. This is a normal person until she is backed into a corner.
It also helps that Sharni Vinson is absolutely terrific. The entire cast is (Barabara Crampton!) but Erin is the character that was always going to end up as the important one. We love a great final girl here on Scare Value. Erin belongs near the top of any list you want to make on the subject. Instead of learning to survive and gaining the strength to fight back over the course of the story…Erin learned all that before the opening scene. Just like John Wick. You simply messed with the wrong person.
Erin’s hidden talents are just one of three twists You’re Next doles out. The other two involve the revelations of why this home invasion is happening in the first place. Youngest son Felix (Nicholas Tucci) and his girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn) are revealed to be behind the slaughter of the family around the same time we learn that Erin can more than hold her own. We don’t discover that her boyfriend (and middle son) Crispian (AJ Bowen) is also in on it until the end of the movie. The first two twists turn the story from a standard home invasion thriller into the wild ride that it becomes. The final twist is the cherry on top…allowing the story to conclude with a cathartic and earned moment.
Crispian having no idea what Erin is capable of proves the first point. His plan is strong by horror movie villain standards. Once his parents, older brother and sister are dispatched…the full inheritance is available for Crispian and Felix to divide. Erin is supposed to be left alive so she can testify that unknown assailants murdered the family…her lack of affiliation to the deceased pushing the story to the authorities. Of course, Crispian’s decision to include Erin in this plot is his ultimate downfall. He doesn’t have a clue what Erin can do because, again, it isn’t her surface character trait.
There are plenty of great kills from beginning to end as well. Both the masked intruders and Erin get their shots in. Even Felix has a memorable moment repeatedly stabbing his oldest brother Drake (Joe Swanberg) with a set of screwdrivers and whatever else is laying around…Drake does not go down easily. Between Crispian’s sister running her throat into a hidden wire to Felix’s death by blender…fans of fun kills will be served plenty of fun by You’re Next.
You’re Next is also a very funny movie. Crispian and Drake bicker like believable siblings. There’s some incredibly dark humor thrown around…especially after we learn that Felix is in on everything. Even the kills often have a punchline feel to them. It’s a movie that is even funnier when you watch it after knowing the twists. A movie that demands repeated viewings.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up the excellent use of the song Looking for the Magic by Dwight Twilley Band. It’s played on a loop during the opening scene when the masked intruders kill the neighbors…and heard again when people attempt to ask those neighbors for help. The song is a perfect match for the tone of the film. When it plays again over the end credits…it helps the movie finish on a moment of pure joy.
Pure joy is as good a way to describe You’re Next as any. Fun, funny, clever, full of great kills and fronted by one of horror’s best final girls…You’re Next more than stands the test of time. There is a slew of home invasion movies that followed in its footsteps…putting the intruders in the real danger when they discover who they’re dealing with. Nothing has come close to matching You’re Next for entertainment and originality. No one comes close to Erin for post-modern final girl royalty.
Scare Value
You’re Next remains as entertaining today as it was a decade ago. We may not have seen a better final girl in the last ten years than Erin. It’s also a wickedly, darkly funny movie. A great cast maneuvers through three big twists and tries to survive the night. Some not knowing who is trying to get in… others not knowing who is already inside.
For more on You’re Next check out our podcast episode
4.5/5
You’re Next Links
Streaming on Max
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
You’re Next Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of You’re Next…check out some other Classic Movie Reviews: Devil’s Due, Better Watch Out, Christine, Door and Urban Legend
