It’s fitting that the first trailer for It Comes At Night debuted on the same day as the trailer for Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled — both are intriguing genre films from acclaimed directors who have a knack for distinctive visuals. But where Coppola’s film has a subtle element of horror, the new film from Trey Edward Shults looks downright horrific and pretty darn spooky.

Shults made his directorial debut with last year’s Krisha, a visceral drama about a deeply troubled woman who tries to reconcile with her family at Thanksgiving — that sounds fairly basic, but Shults, who previously worked with Terrence Malick, uses atmospheric cinematography and framing to inject the film with anxious dread.

…All of which is to say that we’re incredibly stoked for Shults’ new film, It Comes At Night, a horror film starring Joel Edgerton as a man fighting to protect his family from an insidious evil that lurks outside. Based on the plot synopsis and the enigmatic trailer (courtesy of superstar distributors A24), there’s clearly a whole lot more to It Comes At Night than your average domestic survival thriller:

A man (Joel Edgerton) learns that the evil stalking his family home may be only a prelude to horrors that come from within.

Secure within a desolate home as an unnatural threat terrorizes the world, the tenuous domestic order he has established with his wife and son is put to the ultimate test with the arrival of a desperate young family seeking refuge.

Despite the best intentions of both families, paranoia and mistrust boil over as the horrors outside creep ever-closer, awakening something hidden and monstrous within him as he learns that the protection of his family comes at the cost of his soul.

If Shults was able to take a simple family drama and turn it into something that intense and unnerving, imagine what happens when he works his magic on a straight-up horror film. And check out this fantastically eerie poster:

A24
A24
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It Comes At Night also stars Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott and Carmen Ejogo, and arrives in theaters on August 25.

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