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DryKid

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There are some movies that stay with you after you've watched them. This is one of them.

A young couple lie asleep in their large house within the woods. A noise awakens the woman. When she goes to check downstairs, she notices that...
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There are some movies that stay with you after you've watched them. This is one of them.

A young couple lie asleep in their large house within the woods. A noise awakens the woman. When she goes to check downstairs, she notices that her car has been moved. And that's when a sequence of terrifying events begins to be played out.

Somebody is waiting in the dark woods outside their house.

And they want to come in.

This is a movie that does not rely on pools of blood and disgusting deaths to disturb the viewer. It prays upon your fear of the unknown and the nightmare of your home being invaded. The two main actors do a wonderful job here (especially Olivia Bonamy who reminded me of a more talented Jennifer Connelly) as they go from a loving couple to terrified victims. It's an hour of tension in which you really don't know what is going to happen next.

And yes, the ending is shocking. If you haven't already had it spoiled for you as to who the "Them" of the title are, then make sure you watch the movie before somebody ruins it. The revealing of their identity is shocking and the final scene (with the knowledge that this is based on true events) will linger in your mind like a bad dream.

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Posted dec 4, 2007 6:32 am pt

• [+] Philadelphia Inquirer
  
  88
  At a lean - and decidedly mean - 77 minutes, the suspense-horror hybrid Them by French writer-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud is nothing short of revelatory.

  by Tirdad Derakhshani | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Reader
  
  80
  Eschewing special effects, Moreau and Palud reinvigorate the classic haunted house premise by paring the plot down to its essentials.

  by Joshua Katzman | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  75
  One of the most intelligent and unnerving horror films in recent memory.

  by Jessica Reaves | Read Full Review »
• [+] TV Guide
  
  75
  There's no time wasted and no showy effects to detract from the situation -- just sheer tension.

  by Maitland McDonagh | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Post
  
  75
  A welcome change from horror movies like "Hostel' and "Saw" and their mind-numbing gore and violence.

  by V.A. Musetto | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Daily News
  
  75
  If you want an hour or so of terror, put your faith in Them.

  by Jack Mathews | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  70
  The movie is scarier if you know nothing about it going in. It has no larger agenda. It's not an allegory, a satire or a commentary. It's just a modestly relentless suspense picture that propels its characters through a series of dreamscapes.

  by Matt Zoller Seitz | Read Full Review »
• [+] Variety
  
  70
  Romania-set scare-fest deploys the full cinematic vocabulary of creepy sounds and hostile intruders.

  by Lisa Nesselson | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  70
  Them is surprisingly tight, efficient and economical, conjuring a super-creepy atmosphere and incredible tension seemingly out of nothing at all.

  by Mark Olsen | Read Full Review »
• [+] Village Voice
  
  60
  The characters in Them are paper-thin: They're mere props to be manipulated by co-directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud, who want nothing more than to scare you sh--less in what, with its nonstop chase sequences and booby traps, often comes off as a live-action video game.

  by Ernest Hardy | Read Full Review »
• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  50
  You'd better deliver the goods. And Them, despite some moody imagery out of the "Blair Witch" school, never does.

  by Owen Gleiberman | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  50
  The ending underscores the old cliche about the banality of evil but getting there is meant to be the whole fun. For some people at least.

  by Kirk Honeycutt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  50
  Them knows something the makers of the "Hostel" and "Saw" movies apparently don't: Subtlety and suggestion are every bit as terrifying as slashing and sawing.

  by Desson Thomson | Read Full Review »
• [+] Boston Globe
  
  50
  Technique is all you have to admire. There's nothing underneath the formal exercise. The film's coyness about what's happening is cheap.

  by Wesley Morris | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  38
  For a while, it works, until it suddenly decides to abandon the "what you don't see is scarier than what you do see" for a ridiculous and ultimately insulting explanatory ending.

  by Eric Alt | Read Full Review »