Movies

It Comes at Night

Bleak psychological thriller, set in a dystopian version of rural America that’s being ravaged by an unspecified but inevitably fatal plague, in which an isolated family — dad Joel Edgerton, mom Carmen Ejogo and teen son Kelvin Harrison Jr. — gives shelter to a young couple (Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough) and their toddler (Griffin Robert Faulkner). But fear and suspicion eventually undermine the good intentions behind this arrangement, with horrifying results. Writer-director Trey Edward Shults takes a deeply pessimistic view of human nature in a film that is well executed yet painful to watch. Maturity is required to grapple with its lifeboat ethics and tacit acceptance of euthanasia in extreme circumstances.

Watch out for: Some harsh gory violence, including mercy killing, an adultery theme, scenes of marital intimacy, sexual sound effects, a couple of uses of profanity, frequent rough language and several crude terms.

Rated: A-III, adults; MPAA: R

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