This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The scares in "It Comes at Night" are primal and unnerving, as writer-director Trey Edward Shults follows the truth that what's inside us is more terrifying than what's outside the door.

The door in question is a locked red door leading to outside a house in the deep woods. Outside that door, Paul (Joel Edgerton) and his 17-year-old son, Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), are carting the barely breathing body of Travis' grandpa Bud (David Pendleton) out to an open grave. As Bud dies, Paul and Travis place him in the grave, pour gasoline on him and incinerate the body.

The movie gradually reveals that Bud caught the same disease that ravaged most of the cities. Only a few folks in the country, like Paul, his wife, Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), and Travis, have survived.

Soon after Bud's death, Paul and Travis encounter a stranger in the woods. Will (Christopher Abbott) says he has survived with his wife, Kim (Riley Keough), and their young son, Andrew (Griffin Robert Faulkner), by scrounging and squatting in abandoned houses. After leaving Will tied up for a day — to make sure he's not infected with the disease — Paul agrees to let Will's family move in with them.

Paul explains the strict rules of the house to the new guests, and after a while things settle into a pleasant routine. Will shows Travis how to chop wood, while Travis lets little Andrew use his old toys. But a level of suspicion remains, with Paul warning his son that they can only trust their own family in a situation like this.

Stults, following up on his brilliant dysfunctional-family drama "Krisha," understands the audience already knows the basic moves of a horror-thriller like this one, so he doesn't spend unnecessary effort reinventing the wheel. His shorthand images — the solitude of the woods, Bud's skin lesions, Paul's wary glances — don't require elaboration to set the stage for the chills to come.

Instead, Stults focuses on the internal dynamics of this makeshift truce between families. The movie hints at incidents that inform Paul's paranoia and Sarah's quiet sorrow. It briefly suggests Travis' teen hormones coming undone by the presence of the young wife Kim. And it captures the silent battle of wills between two fathers, Paul and Will, each driven to fight for his family's survival.

Amid a cast of talented veterans, young Harrison becomes the movie's linchpin, and it's through his wide eyes that we experience the shocks Stults delivers. Those shocks are subtle, not the gory bloodbaths of typical low-budget horror, but based in the dark corridors of the mind.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

HHHhj

'It Comes at Night'

Two families warily team up for survival after a lethal outbreak in this sly suspense thriller.

Where • Theaters everywhere.

When • Opens Friday, June 9.

Rating • R for violence, disturbing images and language.

Running time • 97 minutes.