It Comes at Night

As a strange, virulent plague decimates the human race and ravages civilized society, a man (Joel Edgerton), his wife (Carmen Ejogo) and their teenage son (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) eke out a precarious living in their secluded house; then the arrival of a desperate young couple (Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough) seeking refuge with their toddler son upsets the tenuous equilibrium of the household, leading to fear, distrust and paranoia. Writer-director Trey Edward Shults’ second feature is an unusual mix of horror movie (it seems about to devolve into a zombie-apocalypse flick any minute, though it never does) and masochistic survivalist fantasy. It’s grim, bleak, uncomfortable and certainly no fun—but performances are excellent and Shults’ atmosphere of soul-corroding terror is hard to dismiss. J.L.