After a strange apocalypse that almost sweeps the world empty, two families are compelled to share a home in an uneasy alliance to keep the outside shrewdness under control only to discover that the genuine terror is within.
The movie has its flaws. But one of Shults's main triumphs is to get us to believe in the danger of the outside world as fiercely as his characters do.
In the absence of such answers, or the intimation of such answers, or even of characters in pursuit of answers, It Comes at Night begins to seem thin, a torment without purpose.
It's not a sexy apocalypse, with a disease that transforms everyone into really cool zombies. It's just death. And it's not an easily managed "Doomsday Preppers" scenario solved by bulk foods from Jim Bakker infomercials. It's just doom.
Midway through "It Comes at Night" you might wonder where it's headed, and it seems Shults may have asked himself the same question. It's a breathless thriller that will leave you gasping until it finally runs out of air itself.
A fairly straightforward post-apocalyptic story, tightly focused on human torment, but suffused with surprising, undeniably atmospheric sights and sounds.
