Feaure Length Review: 'Them' (2005)

French horror cinema has been making a seriously respectable name for itself these past few years, producing some of the most viscerally uncompromising and genuinely ingenious chillers that often rival (and sometimes fat-out put to shame) most of Hollywood’s best genre output. Titles like Haute Tension, Frontier(s), Inside and this year's controversial Martyrs introduced fright fans to a world where the extreme ruled and the word ‘limit’ held no meaning. While not a gorefest by any means, David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s supremely unsettling home invasion flick Them stands firmly alongside the above mentioned stomach churners as a rare filmic example of how terror can be created largely within the confines of one’s own imagination.



THE LOWDOWN: Sangov, Romania October 6th, 2002. A mother and her teenage daughter drive along a dark lonely road toward their home amid the woods. They swerve suddenly to avoid hitting a figure standing in the middle of the road and instead wrap the front end of their FWD around a streetlight in the process. Stranded and without phone reception, the mother exits the vehicle and attempts to reconfigure the damage, only to disappear abruptly behind the raised hood. Terrified, the young teenager desperately tries her phone again for help until she, too, is smothered from behind her seat by an unknown intruder.

The following afternoon, grade school teacher Clementine (Olivia Bonamy) and her aspiring novelist partner Lucas (Michael Cohen) meet at their home in the woods for a relaxing evening together. As night falls the couple are soon besieged by a series of strange sounds coming from outside the house, followed eventually by a full-fledged assault by a group of unidentified hoodlums who have every intention of turning the young couple’s once peaceful night into a horrifying fight for survival.



THE TERROR TALE AND IT’S TIMING: The home invasion sub-genre is a rarely attempted niche within horror, perhaps due largely to the limiting logistics such a scenario is inherently cursed with. Furthermore, Them claims to be based on the true story of a young Austrian couple who met their doom at the hands of a murderous clan of juveniles (although names and events have been changed of course), which would impose on the film an even greater task of dramatic authenticity. But the simple premise of unknown intruders violating a place of warmth and comfort in order to commit seemingly random acts of evil is so primal in its implications of fear it’s perhaps surprising more filmmakers don’t attempt their own spin on such a horrifically rich set of circumstances.



Upon first glance, the film may bare a lot of resemblance to Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers (made three years later, mind you) which was also inspired by a true crime. While that film had a far greater budget and star power spinning its wheels, Them, in many ways, is a more impressive shocker as a result of how much it achieves with its limited production muscle. Right from the get-go the film makes every effort to portray a believably naturalistic environment for its events and characters, never succumbing to a heavy-handed sense of impending doom or telegraphing the upcoming horrors too early. And in the vein of other great thrillers like Straw Dogs and Panic Room, this is a slow-burn assault on the senses that builds very scare with time and precision so that each violent consequence is as brutal and heartbreaking as possible.



Another advantage the film’s low budget affords itself is the no-nonsense approach to the story. In other words the financial restrictions enforce Moreau and Palud to maintain focus on the power of the already frightening scenario and avoid them getting sidetracked by superfluous plot twists and the like. This is a horror movie about our fear of things that go bump in the night, plain and simple.

DOOMED CHARACTERS: Ordinary people with everyday professions and everyday problems are always more convincing for audiences, more so when those characters are faced with a deadly threat. Bonamy and Cohen make for an extremely likeable couple powerless to the hostility of their young oppressors and when they inevitably do meet their makers, I actually felt genuine sorrow rather than relief. It would have been an easy route for the screenplay to portray the two leads as conventional leading adults who come to triumph the imposing evil with heroic feats of wistful action but instead Them has the patience to understate its protagonists and give them a real sense of naïveté’.



THE LOOK OF FEAR: Some films are often harmed by their low budgets (limited production value, inadequate pre-production, rushed casting, etc, etc) but the skin and bones essentials of Them not only add to the innate atmosphere but strengthen its lasting effect. At least 99% of the film is shot hand-held, partly as a result of budgetary restrictions, but also as a method of creating a unique immediacy to the action. Standout visual cues like the revealing of one intruder behind a curtain veil, the eerie woods chase and the final showdown in the underground tunnel ducts are simple and effective, further relaying the notion of substance over style. Even with this approach to the visuals the camerawork is always fluid and calculated, never resorting to gimmicky stunts or elaborate photographic acrobatics in the hope of achieving a ‘wow’ factor.



THE SOUND OF FRIGHT: Just as important as its visual punches, Them’s indisputably creepy sound design is a true display of aural ingenuity and plays relentlessly on the most basic of night terrors. Whether it be rain falling outside the young couple’s bedroom, the eerie hum of television static, broken glass smashing or the unholy screams of the adolescent prowlers running through the woods, each auditory sting brings with it a chill through the backbone, enhancing the already taut anxiety. Moreau and Palud also clearly understand and respect the power of silence, never overloading their scares with inconsequential noise or numbing effects that would otherwise undermine an audience’s intelligence. René-Marc Bini’s score is wisely sparing also and only accompanies the action when needed. Once again, the ultimate goal here is realism.



FINAL THOUGHTS: The fear of a corrupted comfort zone coupled with senseless violence at the hands of a nameless enemy is a real and existent one in the modern world. Whether it be the events of Columbine, the Bali terrorist bombings or the exploits of the BTK serial killer, we can all relate to the horror of irrational assault on one’s own familiar surrounds. As a film, Them is beautifully cinematic and a smart example of psychological horror. As a portrayal of real fears in a real world context, it’s almost a little too good at triggering the trepidation twine.

Dir: David Moureau & Xavier Pauld
Writer: David Moureau & Xavier Pauld
Cast: Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen
Country: France
Run Time: 77min
Rated: MA+