Add "Evil Dead", "The Purge", "Scream" and "Home Alone", subtract the fun, and you have the new horror comedy "You're Next" (R, 1:34). Yes, horror movies can be fun and although some may disagree, seeing people meet a gruesome end on screen can be entertaining – as a means to an end, as in, in support of an interesting story
with a point. Someone should've told these things to the writer, director and actors in this horrible excuse for a horror flick.
A cast of mostly unknown actors forms a family who gather at a cabin in the woods to celebrate the 35th wedding anniversary of their well-to-do parents. The couple's adult children all bring their significant others, allowing for a potentially higher body count when the mayhem begins. Once all the victims, er, ah .family members and guests have gathered around the dinner table, someone starts shooting arrows through the windows. It's not long before those someones enter the home, carrying various sharp objects. As the occupants of the house begin to spill their blood, the carnage is played for laughs. The problem is that the deaths and the circumstances surrounding them aren't even remotely funny, nor are the ridiculous things that the others say and do in response.
For a long while, the killings seem random. Then, when the reason for this bloodbath is revealed, it just seems like so much overkill (pun intended). The movie is not funny. It's just gruesome. And it crosses the line from tasteless to downright sick when one character suggests that it would be fun if her boyfriend had sex with her next to the body of a family member who was just killed in bed. If that shocks you, all I can say is that I wish I were making this stuff up. I'm not. And no one else should have either.
"You're Next" should refer to the people unfortunate enough to sit down to watch it. They're the REAL victims. I happen to think life is precious and if a filmmaker chooses to show gruesome deaths, those scenes should be portrayed with the respect that such a painful end to someone's life deserves. I gave grades to nearly 100 movies over the year and a half prior to seeing this "film". During that time, I sometimes wondered what it would take for me to give a movie an "F". Now I know.
A cast of mostly unknown actors forms a family who gather at a cabin in the woods to celebrate the 35th wedding anniversary of their well-to-do parents. The couple's adult children all bring their significant others, allowing for a potentially higher body count when the mayhem begins. Once all the victims, er, ah .family members and guests have gathered around the dinner table, someone starts shooting arrows through the windows. It's not long before those someones enter the home, carrying various sharp objects. As the occupants of the house begin to spill their blood, the carnage is played for laughs. The problem is that the deaths and the circumstances surrounding them aren't even remotely funny, nor are the ridiculous things that the others say and do in response.
For a long while, the killings seem random. Then, when the reason for this bloodbath is revealed, it just seems like so much overkill (pun intended). The movie is not funny. It's just gruesome. And it crosses the line from tasteless to downright sick when one character suggests that it would be fun if her boyfriend had sex with her next to the body of a family member who was just killed in bed. If that shocks you, all I can say is that I wish I were making this stuff up. I'm not. And no one else should have either.
"You're Next" should refer to the people unfortunate enough to sit down to watch it. They're the REAL victims. I happen to think life is precious and if a filmmaker chooses to show gruesome deaths, those scenes should be portrayed with the respect that such a painful end to someone's life deserves. I gave grades to nearly 100 movies over the year and a half prior to seeing this "film". During that time, I sometimes wondered what it would take for me to give a movie an "F". Now I know.