You're Next

The film begins with sex. Of course. Afterwards, while the young woman walks through the house wearing next to nothing and puts on some music, she feels like she is being watched. But, cool as she is, she does not panic, has a drink and...gets killed. The man, getting out of the shower and - you guessed it - wearing next to nothing picks up the half finished drink before noticing that across his wide windows someone wrote 'You're Next' in his girlfriends blood with the girlfriend lying dead on the porch.

The story, however, is about this guy's neighbors, if you want to call them that. These are weekend homes and there are stretches of wood in between them. Anyway, Paul and Abrey are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. They are joined by their four grown children with their significant others in the massive house. Obviously, this is a very well-off couple. Over dinner, the kids start arguing and while they go at each other, the daughter's boyfriend gets up and walks to the window to have a closer look at something he say outside and gets shot in the head with an arrow. Then more arrows keep flying through the window and eveyone panics (cue very shaky camera work, which I am not a fan of).

Most of what follows is a group of culprits wearing animals masks trying to kill the family members off one by one, using seemingly every possible weapon other than fire arms (crossbow, axe, machete). As the family is trying to gather their collective marbles, one of the son's girlfriend - an Australian girl named Erin - takes matters into her own hands and puts measures of self preservation into action. Apparently, she grew up in a sort of survivalist camp in the Outbacks and knows how to put a cleaver to good use.

The resentments within the family lead to some hilarious conversations (and the laughs produced are planed for and not accidental) and at some point one gets the feeling someone inside the house must have some involvement in what is perspiring. And one is right.

Amidst all the carnage, Crispian (the son who brought the Australian girlfriend) runs off to 'get help' and after Erin has finished off each and every attacker (and son Felix and girlfriend Zee, after overhearing them talking about an inheritance and how this all should have gone down way easier than it is happening), Felix' phone rings and Erin picks it up without saying anything. The caller is Crispian asking whether it is all finished and it is ok for him to come back in. When he does he realizes that he has been talking to Erin and explains to her that the idea was that she would be the innocent bystander attesting to a group of lunatics randomly killing off the rest of the family (and - to make the story more sound - kill off a couple of neighbors, as well) and Felix and Crispian would split the inheritance. He apologizes and notes that nobody expected her to be so good at killing people and promises her vacations and money, money, money. She is having none of it, of course.

The ending of the film is hilarious.

8/10