IT COMES AT NIGHT review (7/10)…not what the trailers would suggest, but still scary

This movie was done no favors at all by its marketing and its title. Both imply this is some kind of horror film. IT IS NOT A HORROR FILM (at least, not in a more traditional sense of the word). I had read enough reviews to get some idea of that…but the folks I went to the film with were expecting something more along those lines and they were perplexed and disappointed.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a germ/disease of some kind has wiped out most of humanity. Paul (Joel Edgerton) and his family (wife, son, father-in-law) are holed up in their home in the middle of the woods and have a detailed and fastidious process for survival. Nonetheless, the film opens with the father-in-law dying from the disease. The family has essentially hunkered down. They are good people, but the stress of the loneliness and fear has made them tight, tense and a touch paranoid. But despite that, after some reluctance, they invite a young family (husband, wife, child) into their home when their paths cross.

The movie is about tension and distrust. The two families can work together for their mutual safety…but we…