Written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017) shows that it’s possible to make very exciting apocalyptic and horror films on a small budget. All you need is a good story and the ability to tell it well. I highly recommend this indie horror gem.

A plague has wiped out billions, the cities have been abandoned, and people are isolated and focused on survival. Paul, Sarah, and their son Travis live in a remote house in the woods, getting by through being careful. They meet Will and his family and decided to take them in, but the ever-present threat of infection looms.

The film is a delight to discover. The actors all do a great job conveying the full spectrum of humanity in a crisis. The characters behave the way we’d expect them to and most of their decisions are very well reasoned, producing authenticity, believability, and genuine conflict. The tug of war between doing the right thing and self preservation was fascinating to watch. The antagonist is the disease outside and the constant threat that the tenuous alliance between these families could fracture into violence.

The atmosphere and pacing are extremely tense. The director wrings a huge amount of power from a single location. Without electricity, the house is very dark at night, lit only by LED lanterns, making it feel claustrophobic. During the day, the forest surrounding the house feels similarly foreboding, as it may conceal infection or raiders. The story never flags, pounding its way to the end while building and periodically defusing tension. The ending is gripping.

But there lies the one thing I didn’t like about the film, which was its denouement in which much is lost but nothing is really answered. None of the possibilities work for how the events roll out, suggesting the plague itself may be an entity, such as the mystery guest in the MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. It also explains the title, IT COMES AT NIGHT, which otherwise in my view doesn’t make sense for the film, suggesting a monster element that just isn’t there. The director explained he wanted the film to have an ambiguous ending, but if you’re going to get me to invest in a story, you owe me more than a mess of elements that defy explanation. INCEPTION had a wonderfully ambiguous ending, but it made sense and fit the film.

So, yeah, the ending was frustrating for me, but wow, what a fantastic ride to get there. IT COMES AT NIGHT is now in my top 5 list of must-see apocalyptic films. Highly recommended.

TUCKER AND DALE VERSUS EVIL (2010) tells the story of two good old boys visiting a remote cabin they bought as a vacation home. Along the way, they bump into a group of college kids on a camping trip and give them the creeps. What follows is a comedy of errors as Tucker (the always funny Alan Tudyk) and Dale rescue one of the girls in the group from drowning, resulting in her friends believing she’s been kidnapped by homicidal hillbillies. The terrified college kids pluck up their courage to fight back, with hilariously horrible results.

This was a fun movie that turns a basic horror trope on its head with plentiful gore, some laughs, and two pretty endearing central characters. Tucker and Dale do their best to fix the situation but end up increasingly terrorized by the college kids who all believe they’re doing the right thing. The simple conceit at the center of the film provides a surprising amount of mileage, as endearing characters and one fun, gory slaughter after another sustain the film to the end. Light, fun stuff, I appreciated the conceit and liked the execution.

Directed by Justin Benson (who also wrote it) and Aaron Scott Moorhead, RESOLUTION (2012) is a low-budget character-driven meta-horror flick that achieves a lot from its conceit and a surprising amount from its execution. It’s packed with weird tension, excellent chemistry between the two principal characters, and a completely satisfying conclusion.

Michael (Peter Cilella), a graphic designer living in the city, receives a strange video and map from his old high school friend Chris (Vinny Curran), who is a drug addict. Over the objections of his wife, Michael ventures out to convince Chris to go into rehab, going so far as to chain him to a pipe in the abandoned rundown house where he’s living.

It’s clear from the start this is a strange place. Drug dealers, local oddballs, and native tribesmen (the house is on tribal land) immediately threaten Michael’s plans to dry Chris out. The area apparently attracts weirdos–cults, UFO religions, and other oddballs. Things get weirder when somebody begins leaving strange storybooks, slides, film reels, and VHS cassettes for Michael to find. Each tells a gruesome story and adds up to a mystery for Michael as he struggles with his friend going through withdrawal.

The film rolls out a bit awkwardly but steadily finds its groove. I found myself as interested in the real and often-humorous chemistry between these old friends as the horror element. Will Michael accept Chris is a drug addict and let him go? Or will Chris embrace life and reject drugs? This story is told organically in the midst of steadily mounting weirdness and tension as Michael meets the odd locals and begins to sense somebody or something is manipulating events. I found the last act gripping, more panic than fear, with a surprising and satisfying conclusion.

If you enjoy finding rare gems in indie horror, check this one out.

In THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (2016), 80 Americans working for Belko Industries in Bogota, Colombia, show up one day to work and find armed guards at the gate. As the workers gossip about what’s going on and settle into their normal office routines, a voice comes over the loudspeaker and announces that a game has begun. If three people are not dead within several minutes, six will be killed. Metal walls slide across the windows, sealing them inside. While panicking over what might be happening, nobody takes the threat seriously until six people die. When the workers signed up for their jobs, they agreed to tracers being implanted in their heads in case they were kidnapped for ransom. These tracers can be remotely controlled to explode.

The Voice returns to the loudspeaker and then tells the staff that if thirty of them are not dead in two hours, sixty will be killed.

The result is immediate breakdown into factions spanning human responses to a scenario like this. Some, including COO Barry (Tony Goldwyn) and executive Wendell (John McGinley), want to raid the arms locker and, in an orderly fashion based on utilitarian ethics, come up with thirty bodies. Others, such as well-liked employee Mike Milch (John Gallagher Jr.), sees the game as a no-win scenario and says they shouldn’t play it, as they’re probably all going to be killed anyway and murder is morally the worst thing you can do. Everybody else is caught in the middle, siding with one or the other or frozen in the middle, unable to act.

What a great movie. I hadn’t held out too high a hope for it, as the idea has been done before (BATTLE ROYALE, etc.). But it goes to show you that a basic movie idea can be stellar if it’s done right. There are a lot of characters but all of them are memorable in some way, and you feel every death. The violence and gore is off the charts and works beautifully contrasted with the corporate setting, everybody in suits and skirts grabbing anything in the building that could be used as a weapon. There are some great surprises, people you don’t expect to die buying it in a flash. It’s one of those crazy movies where you find yourself laughing and eating popcorn while watching total terror and mayhem.

The movie offered opportunities for corporate satire, but it didn’t go that way, and I’m glad for it. It didn’t need to be THE OFFICE with extreme violence. THE BELKO EXPERIMENT played it straight and entertained the hell out of me, without reaching for any big lessons or contrived humor. What we’re given is human beings in escalating panic and terror until they find out what they’re made of. The ending serves up an explanation that offers little in the way of surprise but again, how it’s handled was satisfying. The overarching message seems to be most people will kill to survive, but the reasons vary. Even those who are most morally opposed to it just need the right reason.

In short, THE BELKO EXPERIMENT was a ton of fun. Recommended.

DIG TWO GRAVES (2017) is a supernatural tale of revenge focused on character, great cinematography, brooding atmosphere, and a strong Southern Gothic flavor. Though the resolution sort of felt like a brilliant poker game ending with everybody folding their cards, it’s a great film and I hope to see more like it.

Southern Illinois, 1947. Two policemen drive out into the country in the night and dump two bodies in a quarry pond. This done, the deputy aims his gun at the other man and tells him he isn’t sheriff anymore.

Flash forward 30 years to 1977. Sean dares younger sister Jake (Samantha Isler) to jump into the quarry pond, promising they’ll go together. After he dies in the pond, Jake is scarred and guilt-ridden. Then three strange men confront her with a deal. She can get her brother back if she trades some other boy’s life for his. And they have a boy in mind.

The men are from a gypsy clan that appears to worship snakes and know magic. They offer a gruesome bargain, but what they really want is revenge. For Jake is the granddaughter of the deputy (the awesome Ted Levine), who is now sheriff, and the boy is the son of the old sheriff–the two men who dumped the bodies in the quarry pond. Two men who themselves are nurturing a 30-year-old hate for each other.

The film is a bit of a slow burn, with plenty of moments establishing character, particularly between Jake and her grandfather. The backstory explaining current events is revealed in pieces that come together nicely. The three strange men are great–menacing while also seductive in their offer. The magic elements mesh with the story well enough that they elevate rather than distract. The strange characters, setting half in wilderness and half in a decaying town, and grotesque elements deliver a strong Southern Gothic feel.

Unfortunately, while the end delivers on the whole, it doesn’t pack much of a punch. Everything is wrapped up but I wasn’t left with a wow feeling. At the same time, I appreciated the filmmakers didn’t try to go Hollywood with the ending.

Overall, I liked DIG TWO GRAVES. I’ve never been a fan of torture porn or slasher movies. This is the kind of horror movie I like–characters I care about faced with difficult choices in a world where the grotesque is unexpected but possible.