Essay on Movies about Poverty in America

When first released in 2017, It Comes at Night had a lot of potential to be a box-office hit. The trailers revealed suspense-filled scenes and promised truly frightening moments. The film featured Paul, Sarah, and their son Travis in an isolated house deep in the woods of an undisclosed location. A deadly disease has appeared and all of the survivors is fighting for their health and safety. Sarah’s father, who also lives in the house, becomes ill and Paul puts him out of his misery. The following day, a stranger appears at the house. After being interrogated, the main family discovers that this intruder is trying to keep his own family alive. Paul reluctantly invites Will, the stranger, to take refuge with his family in the house. Throughout the film, these characters experience strange occurrences. The two families begin to become more reluctant of each other. Will’s son, Andrew, contracts the disease and Paul demands Will to leave immediately. Will attempts to ask for half of all of the supplies but ends up losing his life in the process. Shortly after, Will’s wife and sickly son make an effort to escape. Paul ends up taking both of their lives for the safety of his family. At the very end of this film, the audience sees Paul as well as Sarah now infected by the devastating disease that they were trying to keep away from.

This horror/thriller did not live up to the hype that the trailers promised. However, it delivered something entirely different. The first official trailer posted on YouTube revealed shocking moments with supposed creatures. As action builds in the trailer, “Fear Turns Men Into Monsters” flashes across the screen. These words imply that there could possibly be no monster but that the characters themselves will eventually become the monsters. Perhaps the monster is not even human at all. This “monster” could be a symbol for problems that arise in real life. Different scholars have different opinions on what concept this monster is actually embodying. In this movie, the house that these families live in has one door to the outside world, a red door. According to the trailer, this door “is the only way in and out of the house and it stays locked at all times.” This door could possibly be a symbol for something bigger than it actually it is. Some of the comments on this trailer read as reviews for the movie itself. A viewer commented, “Just saw the movie and when it ended I was really confused. Everyone in the theatre said ‘What?’” This addresses the fact that there is really no explicit monster.

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It Comes at Night begins as any normal horror movie would: a family seems to be terrorized by something that the audience is not yet aware of. Anticipation grows more and more throughout the movie. The audience wonders when they will meet what these people are so scared of? However, this “monster” never shows itself. The movie seems to be 91 minutes of pure suspense. According to reviews, sitting through this movie will always have the viewer wondering at the end, “What did come at night?” It Comes at Night quite possibly has a hidden meaning behind the “It.” Many people became skeptical upon seeing this film and began to look at it more intently. According to Michael O’Sullivan (2017), “Oh, there's plenty of mayhem at the climax. But the 'it' that ultimately materializes, out of the movie's shadows, may not be what you have been led to fear, even though it will be instantly, chillingly recognizable.” O’Sullivan attempted to intrigue the readers into discovering for themselves what the “monster” is. What were the characters in this movie so afraid of; what kept them shut in the house? What actually ended up coming at night?

After the film’s release, reviewers began to speculate that the “monster” is a political metaphor. In an article written by Jonathan Judd (2017), he claims that the characters in the film reiterate “the line of the conservative ethos: protection and preservation of family.” It would seem as if he thinks that Shults is trying to convey something about the government through his horror movie. Three political elements that Judd suspected are “Defense of property and family, reverence for family as the primary and singular unit of certitude and fidelity, economic rationing of goods and the ethos of a furtive industriousness.” These factors apparently shone through to Judd despite the scary atmosphere. The need for power was also very present throughout. In the final scenes, the two families struggle and eventually one takes over. A viewer would wonder if this was the fictional character’s plan the whole time. A couple ventured into the woods and found this amazing house and immediately tried to intrude and steal. The lives that the characters have are not exactly ideal. These families have to endure the possibilities of someone possibly taking their supplies and even their home. The threat of a foreign group of people coming and attempting to take over everything that one owns is preventing the family from living a normal life.

Anyone that views this film could assume that this entire movie is a symbol for poverty in America. The quality of life for Paul and his family is low. An unfamiliar disease is threatening their well-being. Sadly, it is common for people in the United States to die from diseases because of the fact that they cannot afford medication. They avoid any social interactions to avoid becoming ill. The thought of sickness endangers their lives, and they spend their days locked inside. In the movie, the couple make an effort to break into a nice home in an attempt to rob the homeowners of their valuables. This situation is also a familiar scene for some poverty-stricken families. It is possible that this level of stress can drive people to do things that would not normally do, such as trespass or steal. Some people have also ended up resorting to purchasing stolen resources, because they cannot afford to buy the actual product at the store. Patrick Butler (2013), a writer for The Guardian interviewed a police officer who stated, “We are seeing ordinary people buying stolen goods because they are having to tighten their belts...’” This has become a common process for some people who live in poverty. This method of shopping is a form of thievery and would classify the people who purchase them as thieves.

Living in poverty also can have serious effects on a person’s mental health. The stress that one would go through would damage them heavily. Vikram Patel and Arthur Kleinman (2003) wrote about the effects poverty can have on someone. In a discussion about hopelessness, the authors mention a statement: “The cognitive impact of living in poverty is illustrated by this narrative from a man in Guinea-Bissau (4): ‘When I don't have [any food to bring my family] I borrow, mainly from neighbors and friends. I feel ashamed standing before my children when I have nothing to help feed my family. I'm not well when I'm unemployed. It's terrible.’” This man is trying to relay the fact that falling into poverty makes him self-conscious. He resents that he has to borrow and ask others for assistance. If the situation happens to get worse then his anxiety and fear would spike. In Night, the two families are suffering while trying to survive off what little they have. The lack of supplies is a big deal because it is not easy for them to acquire more when they run out. Thinking about this occurrence eats at the characters and could possibly be the reason that they are making each other believe that there is a “monster”.

When Trey Edward Shults came up with the idea for It Comes at Night, he did not intend to put the typical scary beast in his film. He wanted this horror to include a more unconventional monster: the unknown. According to Patrick Ryan (2017), a writer at USA Today, Joel Edgerton was excited to star in this movie because “He relishes that so much of Night is left open to question, with no big monster reveal or third-act twist.” To Ryan, it might have been thrilling to star in a movie with no real problem or threat, but to the viewers this concept was suspenseful. No one would know what was going to come around the corner. No one would know what would come out of the shadows. Shults wanted the audience to experience that terror. He used his own fears as the star of this film. These fears eventually proved to be frightening even though people were still confused as to what was terrorizing these people. Further inspection of the scenes of the movie will reveal that the characters were terrorizing themselves. They were possibly telling each other that there was something that was out there that could harm them and convinced themselves to stay inside. Just the thought of something being outside scared the characters enough to keep themselves inside of the house.

The “monster” in It Comes at Night is not particularly a physical monster. It Comes at Night is a contagion-based horror film, produced by A24, that was released in 2017. It introduces two families that are trying to avoid the life threatening disease. Both of these families are suspicious of each other but nevertheless end up sharing a house together. Throughout the film, some mysterious being seems to be tormenting the characters. The director, Trey Edward Shults, made the overall decision to not include a physical monster in his film. Many viewers believe that ideas took the place of the monster in this movie. The menacing aura of the unknown, the concepts of government and historical relations seemed present, and the struggles of poverty could all be the actual monsters of this film. Shults did admit that the real danger was the unknown or mortality, but the other concepts do relate to the movie. To that end, the real monster in It Comes at Night is not some ghastly creature, but it is merely just the idea of “men becoming monsters.”