You're Next - Review

After the Davison family reunion is cut short after masked killers attack their house, one reunion guest utilizes her extraordinary skills and talent to defend herself in You're Next.


A bit of a silly plot summary, eh? Well, I thought so too. I skipped You're Next in theaters for the sheer fact that I thought it looked too much like The Strangers. To be quite honest, when I saw the first trailer I thought it was a surprise sequel but soon realized it was another movie with a similar premise. The only reason I watched this one now is the fact that I kept seeing it pop up on a lot of "best of 2013" lists. Was I happy that I skipped it in theaters? Sure. I'm not regretting giving this one a chance, though.
With that said, I did enjoy You're Next for what it's worth. There were some good kills in it and it wasn't overly corny. I thought the acting suffered and the characters needed a lot more development, but it was a fun horror flick. The effects weren't horrible and it did have a sort of underground feel to it.

When I say the acting suffered and the characters needed more development I mean it. The best actor in the entire film was Sharni Vinson and oddly enough, she was the main character. I get the fact that a lot of the people in this movie were also in V/H/S and I can understand why they were included here, but that doesn't mean they are all that great. As far as character development goes, there was literally none. You don't know why this family seemed to have a lot of tension between them and why certain siblings seemed to be more irritable than others. It was just a mess. Again, Sharni Vinson was the only character that really had any development and I think that was because they had to. You can't have a mid-20's girl suddenly kick into survival, killer mode with no explanation. Her being raised in a survivalist compound wasn't the most realistic but it worked.
The main thing I did appreciate from this movie was the fact that the masked people didn't remain unknown the whole time. We see their faces, we know their motive, and it wasn't just random people who decide to crash a party and kill people. It was a nice change.

Overall I wouldn't say this was the best movie but it was appreciated. I wouldn't put it on my "best of 2013" list but it definitely wasn't on the worst.