Film Review: You’re Next

The family that stays together is slain together in Adam Wingard’s gruesome horror about a home invasion that turns violent at frightening speed.
Undated Film Still Handout from You're Next. Pictured: WENDY GLENN as Zee and NICHOLAS TUCCI as Felix. See PA Feature FILM Film Reviews. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Lionsgate. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Film Reviews.Undated Film Still Handout from You're Next. Pictured: WENDY GLENN as Zee and NICHOLAS TUCCI as Felix. See PA Feature FILM Film Reviews. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Lionsgate. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Film Reviews.
Undated Film Still Handout from You're Next. Pictured: WENDY GLENN as Zee and NICHOLAS TUCCI as Felix. See PA Feature FILM Film Reviews. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/Lionsgate. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature FILM Film Reviews.

Penned by Simon Barrett, You’re Next slathers on the entrails at the expense of characterisation and common sense to ensure almost every character is destined for the mortuary slab before the 95 minutes are up.

Admittedly, the script accomplishes one neat twist to create a modicum of dramatic tension for the film’s grisly closing moments.

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However, director Wingard’s insistence on lingering on furtive glances between certain protagonists almost gives the game away and there’s a paucity of scares, even cheap ones, to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

From the moment heavily medicated wife Aubrey Davison (Barbara Crampton) stares out of her car window and remarks, “We’re so isolated up here” to her husband Paul (Rob Moran), the omens are bad.