'It Comes at Night' a grim, low-key thriller

The marketing for “It Comes at Night” promises conventional horror thrills. Even the title suggests the presence of a bloodthirsty beast or two.

So it shouldn’t be surprising to see such lousy audience exit polls on the film, despite mostly positive reviews from critics. “It Comes at Night” is an atmospheric and deliberately paced indie film plopped into a wide summer release strategy. It may make the film more profitable, but mainstream audiences looking for something more conventionally supernatural, like “The Conjuring,” will leave the theater frustrated.

I saw “It Comes at Night” on its opening night, and the huffing and scuffing from teenagers in the audience was noticeable.

In many ways, I understand their reaction. When it comes to executing traditional horror elements, “It Comes at Night” lacks punch. Every horror element in the film is telegraphed — basically the audience can expect some freaky image or jump every time a specific character tries to go to sleep.

Let’s backtrack a bit: “It Comes at Night” follows husband and wife, Paul (Joel Edgerton) and Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and their teenage son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), living in a remote home in the woods after an unspecified and extremely deadly disease has ravaged the human population. The film opens with Paul forced to kill his infected father-in-law and burn his body in a shallow grave.

Lighthearted summer fun, right?

After his grandfather dies, Travis is overcome with nightmares (the source of most of the film’s “scares”), but real potential danger arrives when a young family breaks into their house looking for supplies.

The film is written and directed by Trey Edward Shults, who incorporated a few subtle horror elements into his debut film, “Krisha,” which focused on a recovering addict confronting her family at Thanksgiving. Much of what makes “Krisha” so memorable is on display in “It Comes at Night,” including raw, naturalistic performances and some lengthy and unnerving long takes.

Edgerton has made a career out of playing quietly intense everymen, and Paul fits that mold in ways that matter as the film inches to its unnerving conclusion. Paul is essentially a good man forced into a life where showing humanity gives you a terrible, Ebola-like death sentence. His choices later in the film have a profound impact on his son, who essentially plays an audience surrogate to the film’s horribleness.

It isn’t a spoiler to say the “It” in the title refers to something less literal than a zombie or bigfoot. The movie belongs in the subgenre where fear and the actions of fallible men create the horrors of the world. “It Comes at Night” arrives at those conclusions in many respects, but Shultz taps into the underlying ideas in some uniquely subtle ways.

Shultz has spoken extensively in interviews about how the story originated from dealing with the sudden death of his long-absent father. That pain is apparent in the scenes between Paul and Travis, though Travis’ nightmares about his infected grandfather play a big role in where “It Comes at Night” lands in its worldview on death and how we all go about trying to escape it.

Don’t expect a lengthy explanation of the disease or what happens to the world outside this fortified house in the woods. Don’t expect a beast to come smashing through the film’s unforgettable red door. “It Comes at Night” operates in psychological tension much better than it does trying to shoehorn in traditional horror beats.

It will be haunting for some, boring for others and probably a little depressing for most. It’s the patient type of movie that seems out of place playing at the same theater as “The Mummy.” It may not be for everyone, but at least it’s well-made and holds a distinct point of view. Not many summer blockbusters can claim both.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.