From the director of the Indonesian horror film May the Devil Take You comes an action film that has carved a place for itself in the horror genre with bloody fury. The Night Comes For Us is a thrilling action-adventure written and directed by Timo Tjahjanto that sees an elite Triad mercenary tear away from his allegiances to save the life of a little girl who has lost everything. For fans who loved The Raid films and Mortal Kombat, this film is something to claw at that ephemeral itch for violence. For fans who love Saw, Friday the 13th, Hostel, It, or just about any horror movie that satisfies the blood lust for carnage and copious amounts of death, this film promises to quench every thirst with a bone-crunching punch to the face. 

The Night Comes For Us follows Ito, one of the six primary enforcers of the South East Asian Triad, otherwise known as a sixth sea. Having massacred a village due to a few villagers stealing a small amount of drugs from the Triad, Ito stumbles across the lone survivor of the slaughter, a young girl named Reina. Feeling remorseful for his actions, Ito betrays the Triad and takes the girl to safety. Having heard of this act of defiance, the Triad dispatches forces to kill the traitor, and they put his former friend Arien to the task. In an all-out war for survival, Ito reunites with old comrades in a desperate bid to secure Reina’s future. They made a dangerous enemy, though. If there’s any chance for them to make it out alive, Ito will have to face off against a man he once saw as a brother. 

Plot

The plot is straightforward enough in that it sees Ito trying to keep Reina alive. Soon after he saves her from his own men, he reunites with his former gang members to aid him in securing her way out of the country. However, through Arian, the Triad find out where they live and attack the group while Ito is away trying to secure passports. In this prolonged sequence of violent action, fans can see that this is not a typical action movie where the good guys manage to avoid taking damage due to plot armor. The action is intense and brutal, and every man and woman involved are as susceptible to harm as regular people. The film is like a hard-boiled noir thriller mixed with a kung-fu movie in that it takes all the evil and moral corruption and blends it near seamlessly with hard-hitting martial arts. 

The goal may be saving a little girl, but there’s an emotional core to this film between Ito and his former gang members. In the final confrontation between Ito and Arian, it’s evident that neither man wants to reach the point they find themselves in, but they have to accept that they are on the paths they choose and must abide by the laws of the world, no matter how much it may pain them. It’s a riveting dynamic that makes viewers want to know more about their past. The film seems to suggest that the full story of their absorption into the triad doesn’t matter as much as their final destinations. To a degree, this assumption is correct. But some fans may feel a bit short-handed by the lack of information.

Characters

With the past not being fully fleshed out for the characters, there is just enough information to understand the loyalty of Ito’s former gang members, with Arian as the outlier. Ito is a heartless killer, though he’s trying to do the right thing. The regret he feels for his past actions is evident, but the path he took to come to this conclusion may not be so clear. The same can be said of Arian, the film’s main antagonist who took the same path as Ito, only he chose his own success over the lives of his friends. The work by Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais playing these characters and their conflicting feelings are well done. Neither man comes across as an action movie trope character, and both are as dangerous as the other. Their stories may have had more impact if the film had more time, but there is enough to maintain interest.