You’re Next – Second Sight

Director: Adam Wingard
Screenplay: Simon Barrett
Starring: Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, A. J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton and Amy Seimetz
Country: United States
Running Time: 94 min
Year: 2011

Adam Wingard’s a filmmaker I love, I think. His film The Guest is utterly marvellous and might be one of my favourite motion pictures ever. It oozes coolness, introduced me to the excellent Dan Stevens and it’s something I must have watched at least 10 times over the past decade. Wingard’s Godzilla blockbusters are entertaining summer crowd pleasers with top-notch effects work and fun, mindless action. But for all of the films of his that I love, there’s a Death Note. An live-action anime adaptation that completely misses the mark, trying to blend the acclaimed series with the Final Destination franchise’s ridiculous gore. Frankly, it’s pretty terrible. Although I’ll partially defend it as one of the better looking found footage flicks, his Blair Witch film didn’t bode well with fans either and ended up bewildering folks more than pleasing people.

When it comes to the film that put him on the map, You’re Next, I have an equally confused relationship. When I first watched the film, I thought it was a ton of fun and being a youngster who hadn’t experienced much horror, I was pleased. As the years have gone by, I’ve revisited the film a few times, especially post-The Guest and found myself loving it less and less. What once felt fun feels sloppy and unengaging. When Second Sight announced that they were doing a 4K UHD release of the film, I was curious to revisit it once again and see if my opinion will change on this viewing.

You’re Next follows Erin, who’s meeting her boyfriend’s family for the first time during a reunion and one evening during dinner, the house is attacked by a group of killers in animal masks one by one. It’s a simple premise, with twists and turns along the way that I won’t ruin if you haven’t seen the film yet.

The whole concept for the film originated when Wingard and writer Simon Barrett were on the press run for A Horrible Way to Die and Wingard proposed that the team make their own version of a home invasion movie, after the sub-genre had been so successful over the past few years. While I admire the pair’s effort to add to the genre with a few new tricks, I don’t feel like You’re Next offers enough to keep it fresh, or most importantly, engaging. 

Erin, alongside the majority of the supporting cast has very little to offer a viewer hoping for nuanced characters, which isn’t to be expected in a slasher, I know, but with the duo’s follow-up also being a genre pastiche, I figured that early crumbs of that would remain here. Nobody’s terrible in the film, and I’m particularly fond of Ti West as Tariq, a pretentious documentary filmmaker who boasts about his film playing at a Cleveland underground film festival. The film can work well when it’s dealing with the lighter side of things, but the comedy doesn’t always land.

It’s difficult to talk about the best element You’re Next has to offer without spoilers, but when a certain character turns from slasher fodder to a full-blown badass, it’s always an exciting turn of events. There’s some nice gore effects on display, but the way the film is shot tends to ruin most of these set-pieces. 

For some reason, perhaps to add to the intensity, the film operates with shaky-cam whenever things get intense, such as the initial attack on the house and it’s such an eyesore that it started to give me a headache. Shaky-cam was all the rage in the early 2010s, I know, but it’s something that distracts from the intended effect of horror. 

While I can see why this has such a cult following to some degree, I don’t think You’re Next is for me anymore, which is unfortunate to say. The earlier years of Wingard and Barrett’s career don’t offer the craftsmanship, the writing or compelling nature that made me fall in love with their later efforts. Still, genre fans might get a kick out of this one if they haven’t seen it yet and Second Sight’s 4K release ranks high among the best UHD releases of the year. More on that below.

Film:

You’re Next released on the 19th August via Second Sight on Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray, as well as standard UHD and Blu-ray releases too. I viewed the UHD disc and the transfer looks solid. The Dolby Vision grade helps the film out greatly, especially compared to the old Blu-ray and as mentioned on the audio commentary, there’s been a few minor tweaks to the film, such as a new pass on the overall lighting  and a light grain filter being added that greatly benefit the film, in my opinion. It’s not a James Cameron/George Lucas revisionist situation where the filmmaker has tried to completely revamp the film and I think fans will appreciate that. The audio track is a DTS HD MA 5.1 track that I believe is identical to the previous Blu-ray and it sounds solid. Overall, a great A/V presentation. The following extras are included: 

Special Features 

• New 4K restoration and HDR Dolby Vision grade approved by Director Adam Wingard

• Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs

• New audio commentary with Director Adam Wingard and Writer Simon Barrett

• Audio commentary with Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Sharni Vinson and Barbara Crampton

• Children of the 80s: A new interview with Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett

• The Most of Us: A new interview with Producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder

• Script as a Blueprint: A new interview with Actor AJ Bowen

• Down in the Basement: A new interview with Actor Joe Swanberg

• Be Funny and Die: A new interview with Actor Amy Seimetz

• Falling into Place: A new interview with Production Designer Tom Hammock

• Slashers Don’t Die: Tim Coleman on You’re Next

• Who’s Next? The Making of You’re Next

• Animated Storyboards

Limited Edition Contents

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Nick Charge

• 120-page book with new essays by Martyn Conterio, Andrew Graves, Kurt Halfyard, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Shelagh Rowan-Legg and Heather Wixson

• 6 collectors’ art cards 

The first audio commentary with Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett is exclusive to this release and right off the bat, the pair are their usual goofy selves during the track and it’s a riot. From the get-go, Barrett jokes about how doing this commentary over a decade after the last is like a Michael Apted 7 Up experience, more about checking in with himself and seeing how much he remembers from the past decade as opposed to offering new insights. The comment about how ‘fucked up’ the broom looks is hilarious. It’s a very silly track, if you couldn’t tell, but it’s jam-packed with fun anecdotes and it’s one of the many great extras included on this disc.

The second audio commentary is an archival track with Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, Sharni Vinson and Barbara Crampton is a hilarious time. It’s clear that the group are having a blast revisiting the film, with Wingard talking about his attraction to long socks in the opening minute, anecdotes about acquiring certain songs for the film and bringing Barbara Crampton out of retirement. It’s a great track that’s highly worth listening to, although it’s nowhere near as technical as some audio commentaries tend to be (which will be a plus for some). Check it out! 

Children of the 80s is a brand new hour long interview with director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett and it’s a fantastic watch. The pair, similar to their interview on Second Sight’s release of The Guest, go in-depth into the production of the film, how the concept arose from the popularity of home invasion horror films and how the pair wanted to make a comedic version of films like The Strangers and Kidnapped. They’re a delight to listen to and hearing them talk about creating a film on a budget, the response from people calling the film a feminist horror and how Bill Moseley almost starred in the film. It’s a phenomenal interview that’s worth watching.

The Most of Us is a brand new 23 minute interview with producers Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder, who were previously interviewed for Second Sight’s release of The Guest, and like their interview on that disc, it’s another interesting one! The pair talk about how they found the perfect house for You’re Next, the production as a whole, including some scenes that were cut and more. It’s a solid interview.

Script as a Blueprint is a brand new 27 minute interview with actor AJ Bowen who recounts his early experiences in life before being an actor, how he became friends with co-star Ti West and his working relationship with Wingard and Barrett. It’s one of the more in-depth interviews here (outside of the behemoth of an interview with Wingard and Barrett, of course) and it’s worth checking out.

Down in the Basement is a brand new 17 minute interview with actor Joe Swanberg, who met Wingard through the festival circuit and previously worked on A Horrible Way to Die. Coming from the mumblecore background, he mentions how the Wingard films he worked on were called “mumblegore” by some people, which is a great term for the film. Another fun interview that’s worth checking out!

Be Funny and Die is a brand new 15 minute interview with actor Amy Seimetz, who’d previously worked with Wingard and Barrett on their feature A Horrible Way to Die. She touches on the smaller features that everybody in their circle was making at the time, as well as working on the production of You’re Next. It’s a fun interview and Seimetz is great to listen to. 

Falling into Place is a brand new 15 minute interview with production designer Tom Hammock, who talks about how he met Wingard and Barrett through the festival circuit and their love for sleazy cinema. Hammock also dives into how they found the right house for the film, got the masks right and more. It’s another solid interview.

Slashers Don’t Die is a brand new video essay by Tim Coleman on You’re Next. touching on Wingard’s usage of horror tropes in an interesting manner. It compares some of the more popular slasher franchises like Halloween, Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre films. It’s an interesting analysis on the film that’s worth checking out. 

Who’s Next? The Making of You’re Next is an making-of featurette that runs for 19 minutes. There’s some overlap in the interviews from the crew compared to the newer releases, but it’s still a decent extra and it’s nice to see some of the other cast members interviewed. 

Five minutes of animated storyboards are included. 

I wasn’t provided with the physical extras, such as the rigid slipcase, the 120 book or the art-cards, so I can’t comment on those.

Second Sight’s release of You’re Next is another A-plus effort from the label. An incredible array of extras, with the highlights being the new commentary with Wingard and Barrett as well as their hour long interview, a solid transfer and from the looks of things, an excellent physical package to boot, fans won’t want to miss out on this release. Highly recommended!

Disc/Packaging:

Where to watch You're Next