‘It Comes at Night’ Movie Review: Who Can You Really Trust? – Morbid Introvert

Plot Summary

Deep in the woods, a family lives inside a boarded-up house, protective of their home and each other, hiding from a deadly virus. 

Paul (Joel Edgerton), Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and their teenage son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), surround Sarah’s father, Bud, donning gas masks and black gloves. Sarah’s father is visible ill, pale, and has sores on his body. The family cries and says their goodbyes and then Paul and Travis take Bud deep into the woods in a wheelbarrow. Paul kills bud, rolls him into a shallow grave, and sets the body on fire. Travis seems to take the death the hardest, as he was very close to his grandfather.

Later that night, the family is awakened by someone attempting to break into their well-fortified house. Paul subdues the man and takes him out into the woods.

The next morning, he demands answers from the intruder, named Will (Christopher Abbott), who tells him that he was just looking for water and food for his family and that he wouldn’t have entered the house if he knew it was occupied. Sarah convinces Paul to allow Will and his family into their home as they will bring their animals with them and if they need to defend the home again, having more people on their side would help.

Paul goes out with Will to the house he says he was living in and makes sure that the story about his family was true. On the way, Paul and Will are attacked by a couple of men and Will helps Paul fight them off. 

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Later, Paul returns to the home with Will, his wife Kim (Riley Keough), and his young son, Andrew. Travis seems excited to be around new people, but Paul is still wary. Paul introduces the guests to the family’s house rules and tells them that there is only one way in and out of the house via a red door and that it remains locked at all times. If they do venture outside, they go in groups of two, and only Paul and Sarah have the key.

The newly combined family seems to get along well, with Sarah showing Kim how to do household chores like boiling water and getting the eggs from the chickens; while Will shows eager Travis how to chop firewood. 

Travis’ dog, Stanley (who used to belong to his grandfather), hears something in the woods and runs toward the noise. Travis chases after him, and Paul and Will follow. Paul stops a panicking Travis from going any further into the woods, assuring his son that Stanley knows the woods well so he will be able to find his way home. Travis reluctantly follows his father back to the house, worried about his dog and the unseen presence Stanley was running toward.

Throughout the film, we see Travis wake up from strange, vivid nightmares about his grandfather’s death and the new people in the home. He admits to Kim that he has had trouble sleeping for a while and has terrifying dreams. Travis also seems to have a bit of a crush on Kim.

One evening, after waking up from one of his dreams, Travis notices Andrew sleeping on the floor in his grandfather’s bedroom. He picks up the boy, still groggy from sleep, and takes him to Kim and Will’s room. 

Travis hears something and ventures to the hallway with the locked red door and notices it ajar. He rushes to his parents’ room and wakes them up, telling them someone has broken in. 

When they get to the hallway, they see the red door open and Stanley on the ground inside the entrance, bleeding profusely, gravely ill. Travis tries to rush toward his dog and help but Paul demands he goes back inside while he and Will “take care of him.” 

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Paul and Will bring Stanley into the woods, and bury and burn his body (like they did with the grandfather). It seems that the virus has affected the dog, and now Paul is worried that Travis might be infected.

Sitting around the table, fingers start pointing to each other as the two families try to figure out who opened the door? Was it Andrew sleepwalking? Was it Travis? Was it someone else? And whoever it was, did they touch Stanley, and are they now infected too?