“You’re Next” Movie Review – World Premiere at TIFF

World Premiere Ticket

Sept 10 2011 – Tonight at midnight I attended the world premiere of an awesome horror flick entitled “You’re Next” at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The showing was part of the Midnight Madness program, which features horror, action and quirky comedies  at … yup you guessed it… midnight. The Midnight Madness experience is unlike any other film at TIFF. The faithful show up every night and patiently wait in a queue that spans the block, and they do it for the honor of being among the first in the world to see a gruesome horror movie. Once inside the 1400 seat venue, theater-goers toss beach balls back and forth between gallery and mezzanine levels in anticipation for Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes to take the stage and announce the night’s guilty pleasure. Then the fun begins. At the first bloody scene someone in the audience cheers loudly “YEAAAA” and almost everyone in the theater responds in unison. Clapping and loud screaming during the movie is commonplace and establishes the uniqueness that sets apart a Midnight Madness screening from that of any other at TIFF. Here is a recap of the movies being shown as part the 2011 Midnight Madness program. I have seen dozens of Midnight Madness films over the last decade and always look forward to the experience.

You’re Next is directed by Adam Wingard whose previous film A Horrible Way to Die also premiered at TIFF last year. The film stars Sharni Vinson who has set a new standard for a heroine in this movie. The TIFF Media Site offers the following description of the movie “From the director-writer team that brought TIFF audiences A Horrible Way To Die in 2010 comes a new experiment in tension. A family comes under a terrifying and sadistic attack during a reunion getaway. Barricaded in their secluded country home, they have to fight off a barrage of axes, crossbows and machetes from both inside and outside the house. Unfortunately for the killers, one of the victims proves to have a talent for fighting back.” The producer of the movie described it more succinctly as “Home Alone as a horror movie”.  The history behind this movie’s inception is very interesting.  Right after their premiere of “A Horrible Way to Die” at the TIFF last year Wingard and his writer Simon Barrett, came to a Midnight Madness showing (of a movie called Insidious) and were blown away by the rowdy audience and the vibe described in the first paragraph of this review. Wingard looked over at Barrett and said “Dude we gotta do a Midnight Madness movie next year”, and You’re Next was that movie. As a side note Wingard revealed during the Q&A that his next movie will be an action movie.

The cast of You’re Next

You’re Next had great character development and within the first half hour the viewer “knows” all 10 members of the family – the neurotic mother, the annoying preppy brother, our heroine, etc. This relationship with the characters is what worked well. The audience cheered when the annoying ones got killed, and cheered even more when the likeable ones survived a crossbow attack. This is when you know your movie is working – if you get the desired response from the over 1000 people at your world premiere. The movie is primarily set in a very nice country mansion which is surrounded by barren trees in what seems to be late fall/early winter. This setting was an excellent choice for our gang of 10 to be killed off one by one. Overall the movie was well received by the audience and we are certain it will be picked up for wide distribution shortly.

Verdict – Killers with crossbows and animal masks vs. a family of ten inside a house. SWEET!