Do not be afraid

It Comes at Night is a horror film and I can’t say horror is my favourite genre. In fact, as far as I can see, I haven’t reviewed a horror film since 2009 (Paranormal Activity; scared the bejeezus out of me). But I’d read that this was clever, engrossing and original, so why not? My bejeezus can take it once every eight years, surely. So we were braced, my bejeezus and I, but rather unnecessarily, as it turned out. This is not especially scary (thankfully, but even so) and, what is more, the storytelling is so spare that I never understood what ‘it’ was and whether it did come at night or at any other time. Mid-afternoon, say.

The film is written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, whose 2016 breakthrough film, Krisha, was terrific (look it up). This, I had further read, shows ‘a defiant disregard for modern horror tropes’.