You're Next

Actors and directors from a certain subset of American independent cinema star in this knowing slasher film. The first of You're Next’s two genre twists is that an attack on a family reunion at an isolated luxury home does nothing to quell the bickering and pettiness from before the first crossbow bolt is fired. The second is that one of You’re Next’s would-be victims happens to be adept at not just defending themselves, but unleashing their own brand of brutality upon the attackers.

The theoretically interesting survivalist backstory of that one character is lazily sketched in the film itself, and a general air of half-baked effort spreads elsewhere. Its macabre humour is limp, and the film’s straight stuff is lacking in any dread or sometimes even clarity, thanks to the use of hand-held camerawork with unclear spatial coherence. This is an anaemic play on formula, bereft of any punch. [Josh Slater-Williams]