You're Next

You're Next is a 2011 American slasher film directed by Adam Wingard, written by Simon Barrett and starring Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A. J. Bowen and Joe Swanberg. The plot concerns a family under attack by a group of masked assailants during their wedding anniversary getaway.

The film had its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness program and was theatrically released on August 23, 2013, in the United States. The film grossed over $26 million at the box office, and has since gained a cult following.

Plot
A cold open depicts a man in a Lamb Mask killing a man and a woman, the words "You're Next" written in blood on the wall.

Later, a woman named Erin accompanies her boyfriend, Crispian Davison to his family reunion at their vacation home in rural Missouri. Present are Crispian's parents Aubrey and Paul, Crispian's older brother Drake and his wife Kelly, Crispian's younger siblings Felix and Aimee, and their partners, Zee and Tariq, respectively.

During dinner that night, someone shoots crossbow bolts through the window, killing Tariq and wounding Drake. The survivors discover that cell phone reception in the area has been jammed. Aimee runs outside for help, but runs into a garrote wire which slices her throat, killing her. Crispian leaves the house to find help. Paul brings Aubrey to her bedroom upstairs; when Paul leaves, Fox Mask appears from under the bed with a machete and Aubrey screams. The rest of the family rushes upstairs and finds Aubrey dead with the words "You're Next" in blood on the wall.

Erin texts 911 and searches for potential weapons. Tiger Mask attacks her through a window, but she escapes by stabbing his hand. Kelly returns to the bedroom and discovers Fox Mask still hiding under the bed. She panics and runs to the neighboring home; it is revealed that it belonged to the murdered couple from the beginning of the film. She is attacked by Lamb Mask while trying to gain entry, falls inside, and is killed. At the original house, Tiger Mask attempts to kill Erin with an axe but she manages to kill him first. Lamb Mask finds Tiger Mask's corpse and flips the dinner table over in rage. He discovers a wounded Drake hiding there, but Erin stabs him with a screwdriver and he retreats.

Paul finds sleeping bags and food wrappers that indicate the killers have been staying in the house for some time. He tries to tell Zee and Felix, but Fox Mask kills him. It is revealed that Felix and Zee hired the assassins Tom (Fox Mask), Craig (Lamb Mask), and Dave (Tiger Mask) to murder the family so they could collect their inheritance. Still unaware of the scheme, Erin is helping Zee set up traps. Erin explains that she grew up in a survivalist compound where she learned combat and survival skills. Zee attempts to kill Erin, but is interrupted. Felix lures Drake to the basement and kills him.

On the upper floor, Erin comes across Paul's body. She jumps through a window to escape Fox Mask, injuring her leg and eventually doubling back to the house. While hiding, Erin overhears an argument between Felix, Zee, Fox Mask and Lamb Mask. Her cell phone beeps to indicate that her text to 911 has gone through, alerting the killers. Erin flees the house again but is unable to run with her wounded leg, so reenters through a window and conceals herself nearby. When Lamb Mask attempts to enter through the same window, she ambushes and kills him.

Realizing she cannot outrun Fox Mask with a wounded leg, Erin sets up a trap at the front door. Fox Mask enters the house through a window, so Erin ambushes and kills him in the basement. Zee and Felix attempt to kill Erin themselves. Felix stabs Erin, but she kills him, then uses his knife to kill Zee. Felix's cell phone rings and Erin answers without speaking. Believing he is speaking to Felix, Crispian apologizes for fleeing instead of not helping, revealing he was in on the murders. He returns to the home and finds Erin. After he attempts to bribe her into staying quiet, she kills him in disgust.

A policeman arrives and shoots Erin in the shoulder, having seen her kill Crispian. After calling for backup, he attempts to enter the house but is accidentally killed by Erin's front door trap that was intended for Fox Mask.

Cast

 * Sharni Vinson as Erin
 * Nicholas Tucci as Felix Davison/Seth
 * Wendy Glenn as Zee
 * A. J. Bowen as Crispian Davison
 * Joe Swanberg as Drake Davison
 * Rob Moran as Paul Davison
 * Barbara Crampton as Aubrey Davison
 * Margaret Laney (credited as Sarah Myers) as Kelly Davison
 * Amy Seimetz as Aimee Davison
 * Ti West as Tariq
 * Lane Hughes as Tom / Fox Mask
 * L.C. Holt as Craig / Lamb Mask
 * Simon Barrett as Dave / Tiger Mask
 * Larry Fessenden as Erik Harson
 * Kate Lyn Sheil as Talia
 * Calvin Reeder as Officer Trubiano

Production
Barrett wrote the film after Wingard told him that he wanted to do a home invasion movie, noting that they were the only films that still truly frightened him. From there, Barrett wrote a script inspired by Agatha Christie mysteries as well as a combination of screwball comedies and chamber mysteries. Barrett would later note that Bay of Blood was probably in the back of his mind when writing the film, although he only realized this after the fact. Wingard credited the film's humor to Barrett's sense of humor and cynicism. Some of the dinner conversations were improvised and based on real-life experiences the filmmakers had with family members.

The film was shot in 2011 at a mansion in Columbia, Missouri. The filming process took place over four weeks, and shooting consisted mostly of night shoots filmed from 7pm to 7am.

Release
You're Next premiered on September 10, 2011 at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and opened at other film festivals later.

On September 21, 2011, Lionsgate announced that it had acquired American, British, and Canadian distribution rights to the film for just $2 million. The film was part of the competition during the 20th edition of the international festival of fantastic movies at Gerardmer (France) in February 2013, and it won the Syfy prize of the event.

Box office
The film opened in the United States on August 23, 2013 and earned $7,020,196 in its opening weekend. The film closed on October 17, having grossed $18,494,006 in the domestic box office and $8,401,475 overseas for a worldwide total of $26,895,481.

Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 77%, based on 144 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's critical consensus states, "You're Next's energetic and effective mix of brutal gore and pitch black humor will please horror buffs and beyond." Metacritic gives the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.

Vanity Fair's Jordan Hoffman called You're Next "one of the more entertaining horror pictures of the last 10 years." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+, praising "Wingard's canny knack for leavening his characters' gory demises with sick laughs and clever Rube Goldberg twists (razor-sharp piano wire hasn't been used this well since 1999's Audition). It's like Ordinary People meets Scream" and describing the final shot as "deliciously twisted". R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine gave the film 4 stars, stating the film "brazenly merges the home-invasion thriller with the dysfunctional family dramedy". Joshua Rothkopf (Time Out New York) called the film "solidly satisfying" and a "minor triumph", although he commented that the film was, in general, unoriginal. Matt Glasby of Total Film called the film "funny and tense, rather than hilarious and terrifying", and complimented the film for being a "good" horror-comedy. Barbara VanDenburgh (Arizona Republic) gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating the film was not "very scary" and that its "budget for red food coloring was no doubt higher than the one for script doctoring", although she complimented the film's score and "gruesome" conclusion. Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post said the movie "is at times bloodily entertaining. And if the central plot twist isn't all that clever, at least the movie offers some motivation for its mayhem," while Jane Horwitz wrote for the same newspaper, "For slasher/horror fans 17 and older, You're Next may provide sufficient homicidal entertainment." Liam Lacey (The Globe and Mail) gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, describing it as "well-executed" but "rudimentary".

A review from St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the film unoriginal, while Rene Rodriguez (The Miami Herald) panned the film, calling it "practically insulting", and dubbed the premise "idiotic". John DeFore (The Hollywood Reporter) wrote that the film's characters were mostly unsympathetic and that more humor would have improved the film. Stephen Whitty of The Newark Star-Ledger, in a review for The Portland Oregonian, gave the film a C+ rating, agreeing it was unoriginal and uninventive, comparing it to The Purge and The Last House on the Left. Scott Bowles of USA Today gave You're Next a negative review, describing it as repetitive and stating that it did not have a purpose.

Total Film placed Erin (Sharni Vinson) at number one on their list of "50 Most Bad-Ass Female Horror Leads".

Home media
The film was released via video on demand on December 27, 2013, and via DVD and Blu-ray on January 14, 2014.