One of the main reasons why I was drawn to It Comes At Night was the similarity the poster bears to one of my all-time favorite album covers. One of the songs from that record, "Gasoline", actually reminds me very much of the film itself. I'm in no way saying that the film is based on this song, it's just that they share a lot of the same ideas and imagery. I'll go through the key parts as quickly as I can.

“So you tried to put a fire out
but you used gasoline”

The first scene of It Comes At Night is Paul (Joel Edgerton) tossing his father-in-law, his son Travis's (Kelvin Harrison Jr) grandpa, into a grave after shooting him in the head and proceeding to light his corpse on fire. Paul was trying to do the right thing; killing this man quickly rather than letting him die slowly from the sickness that may or may not be wiping out humanity. But since his teenage son witnessed the whole thing, now he's scarred from the whole experience and starts to lose sleep and has nightmares anytime he does sleep.

“So there's a sickness that is going 'round
And no one's got a vaccine”

As stated above the grandpa was put down because he had a disease, a kind of disease that's possibly erasing mankind. The film never tells us what this sickness really is, where it came from, how long it's been circulating around, but we're pretty certain there's no cure yet. This is the premise to It Comes At Night's – a family staying away from civilization to avoid catching this lethal disease.

“Before the kids could tell the dog goodbye
Well, you were loadin' up the gun"

Paul is so hell-bent on protecting his family to the best of his ability he sometimes ignores consideration for others. Stanley, the dog belonging to Grandpa, goes missing and is later found severely wounded and dying in the front room. Paul doesn't let Travis say goodbye. Again, Paul is taking precautionary measures and doesn't want things to go any more downhill than they already might be.

“Gasoline” and It Comes Alone At Night can be summed up in the song's chorus.

“I swear it's like dying to catch a ghost
It feels like I'm trying to hold smoke
It feels like I'm jumping towards a train"

The film's central conflict occurs when Paul finds a man, Will, breaking into his house. Through some rough conversation we learn Will has a family he's trying to help so Paul graciously allows them to stay with his family under specific guidelines. There are lots of pros to taking this family in. For instance, Paul's family has lots of water but not much food and Will's family has lots of food but not much water. It seems like a practical solution to the problem at hand. However, since these families are strangers to each other, trust becomes a major issue and the subsequent paranoia makes matters worse. The song and the film are ultimately about making matters worse by trying to solve a dilemma in a counterproductive manner – even if it means having the “right” motives – blindly or consciously neglecting the potential inevitable.

It Comes At Night is everything a horror film should be, or at least everything that makes a horror film work best. It's stripped down, has slow-building dread and tension, it's ambiguous and has more on its mind than to scare its audience. But I wouldn't describe it as a horror film. The only reason I would ever, if ever, describe it as horror is if you tie yourselves tightly into the characters' shoes. And the entire cast and its solid script makes that really easy. Mark my words - Kelvin Harrison Jr is going places. Riley Keough's scream at the end is going to haunt me forever. And point to me a bad performance from Joel Edgerton; I bet you can't. The score by this Brian McOmber fellow is also superb; in the running for 2017's best so far.

But the film isn't perfect.

It's needlessly bleak all the way through, and its setting – and shooting on location, I presume – puts an appropriate and effective use of claustrophobic cinematophery, but lots of that dark indoor stuff is ugly and hard to watch. I don't hold the film responsible for me not completely understanding what it was trying to say, if anything, but that fact hasn't sit well with me since I stood up from my seat. Is it a simple “TRUST NOBODY” message? Is it a libertarian-blooded flick demonstrating why people should just mind their own business and keep to themselves? Especially during a widespread crisis? I don't know, man. For now, just don't trust anybody.