‘It Comes at Night’ is a different kind of scary
Director Shults relied on own fears to create powerful film
NEW YORK - Ever since “It Comes at Night” made its film festival debut, it’s been breathlessly dubbed the “scariest movie of 2017.”
But that was the furthest adjective from Trey Edward Shults’ mind as he wrote and directed the low-key psychological thriller (in theaters Friday), which follows two families steeling themselves against a mysterious virus that infects people with zombie-like symptoms.
“I didn’t make it with the mind-set of, ‘I’m going to make the scariest horror movie ever,’ ” says Shults, 28. “I remember editing the movie and someone asked, ‘Is it scary?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even think about that. Should it be?’
“It’s about my fears: the unknown and mortality,” he says. “Those are the scariest things to me.”
“Night” stars Joel Edgerton as protective patriarch Paul, who warily accepts a young couple (Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough) and their little boy (Griffin Robert Faulkner) into his family’s forest stronghold at the behest of his wife, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and teenage son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). But tensions between the relative strangers come to a head when the disease threatens to infiltrate their home, leading to a violent and surprisingly somber finish.
“I cried when I was done reading it, which is a rare thing for me,” Keough says. “It’s obviously really scary and wild and chilling, but I also found it to be very emotional. It’s a very interesting exploration into fear and human behavior under pressure, and exploring people as monsters.”
“Night” is Shults’ second feature film after last year’s low-budget “Krisha.” Like “Krisha,” which was inspired by a cousin’s fatal overdose, “Night” is an unsettling and personal family drama. He started writing it in 2014 after the death of his estranged father, who struggled with substance abuse and died of pancreatic cancer.
Reconnecting at his dad’s deathbed after a decade of not speaking “was a very traumatic experience,” Shults says. “He had so much regret about his life and everything he loved, and I was just trying to help him find peace.”
Shults’ grief manifested itself in the postapocalyptic “Night,” whose central relationship is between father and son. Paul repeatedly reminds Travis that “you can’t trust anyone but family” (advice the director’s stepdad gave him growing up). The character also equips his family with gas masks and shotguns (a nod to one of Shults’ relatives who’s a doomsday prepper).
Edgerton was drawn to Paul because “I’ve always been interested in fathers who are full of tough love,” he says. “They expect (their children) to grow up a little sooner than they should, but they’re doing it from what they think is the right place.”
He relishes that so much of “Night” is left open to question, with no big monster reveal or third-act twist.
“I loved that it didn’t start with a five-minute (introduction) telling you exactly what had happened to the world through a mashup of news reports,” the actor says. “You get what you need to feel out the story, but also enough to decide for yourself.”