You're Next 2013

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Injecting the home-invasion thriller with fresh DNA, Adam Wingard's "You're Next" strays just enough from formula to tweak our jaded appetites. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: There may be no great originality on display in You're Next, the latest indie horror opus from Adam Wingard, but there's certainly plenty of energy. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: Maybe, in another time and place, and with different actors and a better director, it might have worked. But this thing collapses right from the get-go. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: What the film lacks in originality it mostly makes for in personality-a quality fatally lacking from too many contemporary extreme-horror offerings. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: A smart, feral flick with a wicked sense of humor. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "You're Next" draws on the home invasion/haunted house scenario, but outclasses [other films] with its wit, irony, and technically proficient terror. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Given its title, you can be forgiven for assuming that Adam Wingard's home-invasion thriller will be just another blood-soaked body-count flick. But You're Next is better than that. A lot better. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: An energetic mix of dark comedy, senseless violence, satisfying surprises, and good old-fashioned mayhem. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: A nasty little slasher film that starts poorly but gets better once most of the cast has been butchered. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: The surprisingly adept mixture of tones ... is offbeat enough to keep even hardened connoisseurs of body-count entertainment on their toes. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Wingard does pull off a few stylish setpieces: He is clearly talented. But the movie, which was shot two years ago and has been kicking around the film festival circuit since then, feels dated and trite. Read more

Frank Lovece, Newsday: It clicks as an exercise in suspense and well-paced, slowly unfolding answers. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although there's a twist in this tale, most of it - the brutal home invasion, the anonymous creeps in spooky masks - is stuff we've seen before. And Wingard doesn't think of a new way to show it, either ... Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: "You're Next" tries, somewhat valiantly, to add new twists to the usual bloody horror-flick shenanigans. But aside from a few fresh chords, it's same-old, same-old. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The film begins as an utterly routine horror flick with all the usual musty tricks, but that's just rope-a-dope. The expectation of stupidity makes the cleverness to follow stand out. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: This uninhibited slasher movie has sick-joke humor and variety -- it's more of a hack, chop, slice, dice and puree film. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: A wickedly clever play on the genre that takes you by the scruff of the neck and drags you through 90 minutes of the most inventive mayhem, murder, and pitch-black comedy you're likely to see this year. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Home invasion thrillers seem to come along every five minutes... Kudos then to indie director Adam Wingard for kicking in with some fresh ideas. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: By slasher standards, the writing is good, with interesting turns and surprises. And the acting isn't bad, either, though Vinson is the one to remember. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A taut, garish gut-wrencher about a family attacked by masked gate-crashers, it's presented with audacious mastery of its pulp material. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The family's reactions and fights for survival are played for laughs just as often as shock, and the horror/comedy blend pays off. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A well-executed horror-comedy ... Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Satisfies the expectations of Midnight Madness gore hounds - and then it happily goes about exceeding those expectations. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: A clever, genuine and crisply chilling take on terror that should appeal to cinephiles and Saturday night popcorn-throwers alike. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: Fairly routine brunette-fighting-for-survival stuff with a liberal dose of dark humour. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Nothing here is new, but you can't call expert craft like this warmed-over. Solidly satisfying with ruthless forward momentum, the film plays like a minor triumph. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: A film of repetition, a bloody dance consisting of three steps: stab, scream, repeat. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Village Voice: It's like watching a nature show where the gazelle turns to the hyena and says, "God, already - just get it over with." Read more

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post: Most of these characters are disagreeable, so the prospect of their imminent demise isn't too upsetting. Read more