By Danny Peary and Will Tentindo
When an unknown catastrophe forces two families together, mistrust and deceit leads to the adults getting violent in the name of protecting their families. FilmInk fave Riley Keough (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Girlfriend Experience, American Honey, the upcoming Soderbergh joint Logan Lucky) plays Kim, the mother of the family that asks for shelter in another’s house. The limits people will push themselves to for their families is at the core of this film, and those limits take a dark turn.
“The reason this film works is because everyone is so invested in these people’s connections. They are families,” Keough told us. “If they were just random people in a house it wouldn’t be as impactful if they die.”
It Comes at Night was shot over the course of twenty days in Woodstock, New York. Despite the final intense result for the audience, Keough confesses that it was an easy shooting process: “It was one of the easiest films I have ever made,” she said. “Low stress despite the subject matter.”
She added: “The actual process of making a film with the people I do it with is far more important to me than the actual film. I always enjoy making a film more than watching it. It’s kind of an extra bonus when my film comes out a year later!”
While It Comes at Night has underlying themes on the failure of fatherhood, the women in the movie have less direct conflict and jealousy. Keough’s character Kim is particularly nonviolent in a violent scenario, but Keough thinks it reflects different characteristics between her character, Kim, and the other mother Sarah, played by Carmen Ejogo.
“I don’t think [Kim’s] quite there yet,” she said. “She’s younger and less cynical, just a different person, and she’s not ready to go that route. There was a scene between us that got cut in which it was implied that Sarah was a little bit jealous of how tactile and loving our family is. The issue is less between us than between Sarah and Paul [Sarah’s husband, played by Joel Edgerton].”
It Comes at Night is in cinemas July 6, 2017
