Summer 2013 might be the summer of horror, with films like The Purge and The Conjuring opening to bountiful box office weekends, but Adam Wingard’s You’re Next will not be left in the dark.
With a rumored budget of less than $2 million, You’re Next makes up for what it lacks in supernatural scares and high-tech gore with brutal survivalist violence, downright twisted characters, and the most inherently scary prop of all time: the mask.
The film, simply enough, follows a family on a retreat to their large, isolated vacation home, where they quickly fall victim to masked assaulters. But You’re Next isn’t The Strangers; there’s something special about Lamb, Tiger and Fox Mask, beyond the fact that writer Simon Barrett himself could be seen if he weren’t behind the tiger face.
You’re Next is fast, and thanks to smart editing and excellent dialogue, you won’t even notice the film progress. Its characters are clever, meaning their comments can be funny and their decision-making skills are sharp, though for some more than others. This characterization in You’re Next provides a modern horror essential: your personal desire for the characters to live.
The Conjuring – one of the summer’s greats – presents itself as a classic, terrifying horror film, and it succeeds. You’re Next is similarly victorious, though it excels in trendier categories. It’ll make you squirm, and it’s also campy enough to make you cheer.
[h2]Limited: The Bling Ring[/h2]
When Emma Watson starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, many questioned whether she would be able to pull off an American accent. For Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, she was required to perform a dialect much more specific: that of the infamous Alexis Neiers, of Pretty Wild and, consequently, The Soup fame. Watson fully embodies Neiers and while the voice was foreign for the British actress, the lifestyle was probably all too familiar.
The Bling Ring follows the true story of a group of very wealthy teens, who stole from the even wealthier and were able to get away with it – for a while. The members of this pact, or “the bling ring,” are portrayed by a select group of young actors in addition to Watson: Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Claire Julien, and Taissa Farmiga. These actors manage to bring depth to their superficial counterparts, adding some soul to the sexiness.
There’s something undeniably fascinating about rich youth stealing from richer celebrity youth, hence the popularity of Pretty Wild, the reality show that semi-documented Neiers’ court proceedings. Coppola captures the shallowness of our desire to watch with her film. Some argue that she doesn’t really manage to make a point in The Bling Ring, but I’d argue that she doesn’t need to. Real-life justice was served, and we as viewers get to live out our fantasies through the film: who doesn’t want to raid Orlando Bloom’s house?
— Emily Estep
