Film Review: The Night Comes For Us

Excuse me, I’m in the hospital right now. I’m still recovering from the ferocious ass beating I got as I was watching The Night Comes For Us. Seriously, ever since Gareth Evans unleashed The Raid in 2011, Indonesian action cinema have been scratching an itch that hasn’t been scratched since the peak of late 80s and early 90s Hong Kong action films. And while Gareth Evans has made it clear that he unfortunately has no plans for The Raid 3 (he’s too busy with equally cool projects like Apostle) there’s a number of filmmakers picking up the mantle, and crafting some gnarly genre films that are finally getting the exposure that they deserve.

Among them are Timo Tjahjanto and his usual collaborator, Kimo Stamboel, and they worked on stuff like Macabre, Killers, Headshot, each of them are great, and worth checking out if you haven’t already. Tjahjanto is working as a solo writer/director this time around with The Comes For Us. It’s about a triad enforcer named Ito (Joe Taslim), who becomes sick of the slaughter, and spontaneously decides to spare a little girl, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez), from a village massacre. This makes the boss (played by Sunny Pang), so Arain (Iko Uwais) is tasked to take Ito and the girl out.

Like The Raid the plotting is kept simple, fairly straightforward, with only a few moments dedicated to bringing in more narrative nuance, especially when it comes to the relationship between Ito and Arain, who were old friends before they even got involved with the world of gangsters. There’s even some themes that explore regret, and coming to terms with what you’re willing to do for the greater good, it’s mostly in broad strokes, but effective nonetheless. However, the filmmakers know we’re here for the action, and that’s where the film truly delivers.

While The Raid films can get a bit over-the-top, they are fairly grounded, somewhat serious minded, and mostly keep to realistic physics with their fight sequences. The Night Comes For Us, on the other hand, is like a cartoon. Imagine the craziest 80s action movie as if it was helmed by Takashi Miike, who just recently watched the lawnmower sequence from Dead Alive on repeat. The film lets you know early on that it’s not going to treat the human body in the most sensitive way, it’s going to abuse it and stretch it for all it’s worth. The action is aimed from the get-go to be as brutal as possible, and it allows the filmmakers to get creative with the kills and the environment.

The film is pretty much a clean two hours, and while that might sound like a bit much, it goes by very fast. There’s a solid 15 minutes of plot setup, and from then on, it’s a bloody action extravaganza, with only a few moments for plot progression, and for the audience to catch their breath. They also do a smart thing in preventing the action from feeling repetitive by not only keeping environments different, but by also cutting between two different set pieces at a time. It helps keep you engaged and on your toes, and they manage to give you just enough to actually care about these characters.

If you’ve seen any of the Raid movies or even Headshot, you’ll see a lot of familiar faces here, which is great because you know you’re going to see people who know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to handling the endlessly impressive choreography, and you know they’re charismatic and engaging enough screen presences to make the plot beats in between the action easier to sit through. Taslim handles the complex morality of his character well, Uwais gets to be a more antagonistic presence, which is a nice change of pace (especially after being wasted in Mile 22), Julie Estelle is magnetic as this mysterious assassin; the whole cast is terrific.

There’s not much else to really say about The Night Comes For Us. Like I said, it’s simple, and to the point. It features the most viscous and viscerally satisfying action you will see all year, and it’s put together by people who have an incredible skill in piecing together incredible hand-to-hand combat sequences both in front of and behind the camera. I really loved this movie, I loved every bone-crunching, blood-splattering second of it. If you’re a fan of action flicks, this is a must-see, and it is available on Netflix, so you have no excuse. But maybe get a helmet or something before you press play cause it’s probably going to leave a mark.