Hit horror film It Comes At Night won't hit NZ theatres

It's the horror hit scaring the hell out of American film audiences.

But Kiwi cinema-goers currently can't see it.

That's because It Comes At Night, a film one reviewer described as "so dark it calls for the invention of a new colour", doesn't have a New Zealand release date.

A similar thing happened to break out hit Get Out earlier this year, with fan demand and a huge overseas response eventually seeing the film screened in theatres.

It Comes at Night isn't listed on websites for Events Cinemas or Hoyts, and on film buff site Flicks.co.nz, it's listed as "undated" and "coming soon on demand, DVD/blu-ray.

The film follows a man trying to protect his family as an "unnatural threat terrorises the world" and a trailer shows them holed up in a desolate cabin surrounded by trees.

It stars Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Joel Edgerton and Riley Keough and has a 78 per cent approval rating on Metacritic, where critics have been raving about it.

"For much of its brisk running time, It Comes at Night teeters between delicious atmosphere and almost unbearable tension," wrote the Washington Post.

The Boston Globe praised the film's ending, and said it "gets very far under the skin".

"The final scenes are both ambiguous and terrifying, and they left a preview audience as shaken as any I've seen. I had the distinct feeling, though, that a lot of them wouldn't be recommending the movie to their friends."

And IGN said: "It Comes at Night is emotional, haunting dystopian horror that will leave you shaken."

But not everyone has been impressed. "It Comes at Night is about as enjoyable for the audience as it is for the people in the movie," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle.

"On both sides of the screen, misery reigns."