Somebody over at Second Sight sure loves modern horror. In recent times, we have had delightful packages of It Follows, Possessor, Green Room, The Sacrement to name but a few. All from young and prospering horror directors (largely from across the pond). This time Adam Wingard gets a second helping (Second Sight already gave us the lovely edition of The Guest – Now out of print, Good luck!) with his housebound slasher thriller You’re Next.
Thankfully not just a throwaway killer thriller, this one has characters galore, nasty deaths and surprising twists along the way. This sort of film at the time was limping along in the straight-to-DVD categories and You’re Next breathed much-needed life and style into it – Thanks largely to the director and writer team of Wingard and Simon Barratt.
An extended family gather at the family home for dinner. The grown-up siblings have brought their other ha;ves with them and what should perhaps be a nice get-together very quickly, dramatically, and often amusingly shows the family as dysfunctional at best. Matters aren’t helped with armed killers outside attack the house and start reducing the family headcount. Thankfully, one of the guests has a few tricks up their sleeve to turn the tables.
You’re Next is a breath of fresh air in the genre. Tense, funny and well-written and directed. There is no more to say other than what the extras package has brought to offer.
Wingard and Barratt deliver a brand new commentary on the feature and both also feature on the original track along with actresses Sharni Vonson (who seems to have disappeared from the limelight despite the plaudits she got for this film?) and Barbara Crampton.
Actosd AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg and Amy Seimetz give new interviews (as they did on The Sacrament set a few months back) and they all go in-depth with great anecdotes about the film and filmmaking.
There are new interviews with the producers, director of photography and production designer. And then there is an almost feature-length interview with both the director and writer which along with the new commentary shows how willing they were and wanted to show up for this release. That kind of enthusiasm in bonus material is inspirational and hopefully will rub off on other filmmakers.
Steven Hurst
Full contents:
Special Features
Limited Edition Contents
6 collectors’ art cards
You’re Next is out on 19th August