Them – 2006
Posted by Scott on 27 Oct 2008 at 12:18 am | Tagged as: Obscure Films
Do you like scary movies? If so, here’s what you do. Rent a cabin or cottage in the woods with your significant other. Once your settled, wait until dark. Get comfortable in front of the television. Load Them into the DVD player. Kick back and enjoy, remembering it’s only a movie. I’m nothing if not responsible so I feel it appropriate to inform you it’s a movie based on actual events. That’s right, the events depicted happened for real. I’m not prone to hyperbole, so when I say this is one of the more disturbing films I’ve seen in years, I mean it.
Late one night a mini-van runs off a remote country road leaving a mother and daughter stranded. Something or someone is waiting in the nearby woods. The mother soon vanishes. The daughter leaves the van to search. A voice from the trees sends her running back to the van. In a panic, she locks herself inside. She is not alone.
The next day a teacher named Clementine drives the same country road returning to her massive estate house located in the dense forest where she lives with her boyfriend Lucas. Clem and Lucas talk about their days, eat dinner, watch television, then retire to bed. Clem, an insomniac, returns to the living room to do some work. The phone rings. She answers but hears only odd static. She hangs up and decides to go back to bed.
In the middle of the night, she awakens. Loud music can be heard outside. She revives a sleeping Lucas. Together they stumble downstairs to investigate. Lucas ventures out the front door. Someone is stealing Clem’s car. An angry Lucas gives chase but the car drives off. Clem and Lucas go back inside to call the police. The lights go out and the phone goes dead. Panicked, the couple lock themselves in their bedroom. Strange noises filter from downstairs. Lucas and Clem are trapped. They have invaded. They won’t leave. But who or what are ‘They’? Strap in for a terrifying game of hide-n-seek that will stick with you long after the end credits roll.
Them dispels the myth of domestic security. A beautiful house in the country, away from the dangers of the city, the dream of every young couple. This dream, and its implied safety, is shattered by the most egregious of personal attacks: Home invasion. Lucas and Clem’s bucolic lifestyle offers a promise of happiness. The grim actions perpetrated on their ideal existence serves as a brutal reminder that the evils of the world can befall anyone, anyplace, anytime.
The most shocking element is the identity of these purveyors of savagery. Without giving away anything, the revelation makes a chilling statement on the spread of societal violence. In the film’s coda, one of the guilty provides a sadistic explanation for the acts committed: “They wouldn’t play with us.” These ominous words should be a warning to every man, woman and parent who falsely believes in the guarantee of protection.
73 minutes. That’s all it took to tell this harrowing tale. Not a second of film is wasted by Writers/Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud. They allow no chance to catch your breath once the plot gets going. Sound sells the terror. Hurried footsteps, plastic sheets flapping in the wind, a tree trunk cracking, the unnerving screech of a noise-maker. Them is pure horror through and through. Olivia Bonmay and Michael Cohen are phenomenal playing terrorized couple Clem and Lucas. Flawless nighttime cinematography by Axel Cosnefroy adds tone to the frightening atmosphere. Normally, I would include a trailer but to do so would ruin the film. If you’re a horror fan, see Them. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
