SLIFF 2017 Review – TONIGHT SHE COMES

TONIGHT SHE COMES screens Wednesday, November 8th at 9:30pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE.

When a girl goes missing, two of her friends and a mysterious set of strangers find themselves drawn to the cabin in the woods where she disappeared. As events unfold, they will laugh, they will drink, they will kiss, they will make love — and most of them will die. This mid-Missouri-shot horror film was directed by St. Charles native Matt Stuertz, lensed by St. Louis’ go-to cinematographer Chris Benson, and features a cast of primarily local actors. We Are Movies Geeks hails the film as “one of the funniest and most engaging pieces of exploitation to be crafted in the past few years” and describes “Tonight She Comes” as “the best homage to the ideas that Sam Raimi set up in ‘The Evil Dead’ since Drew Goddard’s ‘The Cabin in the Woods.’” The website UK Horror Scene is just as effusive in its praise: “These ain’t just pretty people getting stalked in the woods; these are shaded characters with flaws and personalities.… It’s the type of horror we’ve been waiting for, and then some. Funny, scary, vomit-inducing, unpredictable and flat-out insane.”

Review of TONIGHT SHE COMES by Stephen Tronicek

Finishing TONIGHT SHE COMES is like a marathon for your tolerance of gore and sex on film, and that is about the highest compliment that I could give the film. The film plays like the best homage to the ideas that Sam Raimi set up in The Evil Dead, since Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods, and while it lacks the overall polish and cleverness of that feature, it’s low-budget grindhouse aesthetic provides the audience with plenty of amazing gore.

TONIGHT SHE COMES also isn’t scared to be obnoxious at times, with the opening minutes quite intentionally setting up our expectations to expect the typical exploitative horror film through airheaded female characters and an almost sickening focus on sexuality, but soon you realize that these features are  just there to sober you to the film’s world before it actually cuts the hell loose.

When it does, and boy does it, the film becomes one of the funniest and engaging pieces of exploitation to be crafted in the past few years. TONIGHT SHE COMES eventually starts to become so crazy and absurd that you can’t help but sit back and enjoy the ride. The light comedic tone to the cluelessness of the protagonists and their quick-witted dialogue makes for some of the craziest conversations on screen, with each new progression of the conversation and the situation offering a new “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” moment for both the audience and the characters. The escalation of the film from kind of boringly toxic to wickedly absurd and intelligent, parallels the characters own transition from the normality of their lives to the gory events of that the night and soon the film dissolves into a feeling of pure surrealism (not that it really is surreal) just because of the flurry of blood, guts, and insanity that is offered to the audience. To reach that level of gory absurdity, you need gore, and TONIGHT SHE COMES has lots and lots of gore. If the phrase, “Bring a Barfbag” sounds like the most entertaining thing in the world to you (and who can imagine it not being), then TONIGHT SHE COMES is going to be a wonderful ride for you.

Writer/director Matt Stuertz has a strong handle on the tone of his movie, even when it is obnoxious and he goes all in making the experience, unlike anything you’re going to see at this year’s festival. TONIGHT SHE COMES is a nasty, excellent package, and it’s definitely one to check out at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival