Movie Review: You're Next

It's been over a month since my first movie review (shame on me!), so I figured that while Joe studied this weekend I would hit up the theater and check out You're Next.

Yes, I realize I've done two reviews and both have been about scary movies, but I warned ya'll in advance. I love this genre. Slashers, especially, hold a special place in my heart because I wrote my college thesis on them.

Yup! You read that right.

Thanks to the flexibility of being a Communications major, my thesis was on gender portrayal in slasher films. Although the most obvious approach would be to analyze the portrayal of women in these movies, I went a different route and looked at how male characters are handled. I think I proved that slashers suck for all characters involved, not just females. (And, if anything, men are actually treated worse. Don't believe me? I'll e-mail you a copy of my paper.)

It's been a while since I've seen a good slasher film, so I was eager to see You're Next; especially since it's gotten generally positive reviews. Here's mine:

You're Next 
7 stars out of 10

You're Next - it's basically Home Alone remade with more violence, a high body count, extra bad guys, and boobs. Oh! And Kevin is now played by a chick with an Australian accent. Sorry Macaulay.

The movie begins with a family gathering at their secluded vacation home for an anniversary celebration. Despite the trailer leading you to believe they are all one, big, happy family - they aren't. (Heck, there's more discord than when the McCallisters were getting ready for their trip to Paris.)

Things don't improve at the dinner table. As a fight over the appropriateness of a professor banging his TA erupts, one member of the group notices something outside the window and decides to investigate.

Oops, wrong choice buddy. This IS a slasher movie after all.

After death #1, the rest of the family finds themselves being hunted by men in animal masks. While the odds seem stacked against them, they do have one person in the house who seems to know a thing or two about fighting back...

I had a really hard time deciding on a score for this movie and finally landed on 7 out of 10. It was well done in a lot of ways - the acting was solid (for a horror movie), the deaths generally creative, there were a few laughs, and I was surprised by a couple twists of the plot. I am glad I saw it.

That said, it's not a movie that I will probably watch again and I wish I had waited to rent it from Redbox (actually, if I had watched this at home by myself with the lights out, I probably would have liked it more). I think my biggest issue is that I didn't feel invested AT ALL in the characters. In fact, my only feelings toward most of them were varying degrees of dislike. When someone dies in a horror movie, usually I feel something. I didn't in this one. I'd say I am becoming desensitized, but other scary movies recently haven't elicited this non-response.

I do have to admit it got me somewhat scared. When I came home I had to get our laundry out of the dryer. Problem is, the dryer is in the basement and you have to go through this spooky door to get to it:

Let's just say no one has ever run in and out of a basement so quick without dropping a single sock ;)