Them

It is no surprise that the horror genre has been in a rut lately. Beginning with the 2oo4 release of Saw, followed shortly by Hostel, both of which have had their fair share of sequels and imitators, a disturbing trend was born. The general public seemed to start believing that extreme, flesh-ripping, bone-crushing violence was a appropriate substitution for a little thing called 'suspense', a film trait that sadly, has been all but forgotten in 95% of mainstream horror. A note to all aspiring filmmakers: slinging blood and guts at the screen while a screaming woman looks down at her gaping chest cavity, that isn't fresh. Or scary. Also, using grainy film stock and rapid fire, Michael Bay editing for someone eating a sandwich, does not constitute style. *Stares long and hard at Platinum Dunes*

To summarize myself, the horror genre seems to be in a collapsing in on itself, and as long as those of us to truly love the genre are constantly force-fed generic torture-porn, insipid remakes, or are forced to hear one more time that a film is being shot with sand in the lens to "capture the grittiness of 70's movies" *stares longer and harder at Platinum Dunes*, well, lets just say the future ain't looking too bright.

Thank God for the French. Yes, I am of sound body and mind, and I do realize the implications of what I just said. I'll say it again: Thank God for the French. After investing hundreds of hours in grimy dungeons or being the witness to death-traps that probably cost the same amount of money to make as America is in debt, *glares at Saw*, it is truly refreshing to see a movie that realizes that it doesn't need to, in the words of Scream's killer, "see what your insides look like" to be truly terrifying and memorable. The breath of fresh air I speak of is Them, a francophone that knows full well how to make the audience a sweating, heaving mess, without spilling a drop of blood. Okay, maybe a drop of blood...

The film wastes no time in letting the viewer know that something deadly prowls the Romanian forest at night. A mother and daughter, clearly at each other's throats, are forced to pull over after narrowly hitting, something, in the middle of the road. The mother is whisked away, and her daughter is violently strangled inside of the car. All to the tunes of helpful *call waiting music* when she tries to contact emergency services. The focus then switches to Clementine (Olivia Bonamy), a young school teacher trying, with little avail, to ram French through the skulls of rambunctious Romanian youngsters. As all teachers are bound to be, she is looking forward to a weekend off with her struggling writer boyfriend, Lucas (Michael Cohen). Naturally, the site where the mother and daughter were killed seems to be only a few miles away from the house they have. All. In. The. Middle. Of. Nowhere. A brief sideline about the house: upon seeing it, the natural reaction would be to wonder why this house isn't perched on top a cliff and constantly enshrouded in fog. After the required frolicking, darkness falls. After a series of incidents, that involve garbled phone calls, and their car being stolen, their sanctuary is breached when six hooded figures break into their house, clearly with ill-intentions. Clementine and Lucas quickly find themselves in a struggle with an enemy whose motives are as mysterious as their identity.

Clocking in at just over an hour, Them leaves little room for introspective character development. Virtually all we know about Lucas and Clementine is that they are respectively, an aspiring writer and a school teacher, and very much in love. That being said, the actors share a remarkable chemistry, and their light-hearted jabs coupled with their more intimate moments make them one of the most naturalistic couples I've ever seen. The flip side of the brevity statement is that the film takes little time establishing the situation, and once the siege begins, the film maintains an almost unbearable tension. The film has as its core a universal fear: just what would happen if someone broke into your house when you were at your most vulnerable. Once the horror kicks in, the house begins to become a character onto itself: with its rooms shrouded in plastic, cavernous attic, and seemingly never ending flights of stairs, the house seamlessly transforms into a landscape that is both clouded in dread and alien. This being said, the cinematography is handled well, with almost everything either being drenched in shadow or objects casting sharp, huge shadows onto the surrounding walls. The transformation is evident of just how well the film is able to take the every-day and transform it into something hostile and unknowable.

The sound works extremely well also; since the film's modus operandi is mainly suggesting what hides in the dark rather than give the viewer an eyeful, thus diminishing its effect *stares at Boogeyman*, effective sound design is essential. Given the context of the film, sounds as innocuous as taps turning on and off, footsteps going up and down the stairs take on a new sense of immediate danger. The soundtrack is minimalist but works well; mostly alternating between heavy base and a series of halting, heavily industrialized sounds; with the latter sound effect working extremely well with what I will only call "the eyehole scene". Of it, I will say no more. The remaining audio effects are more identifiable as straight horror, with the invaders letting loose a series of unsettling, animalistic howls and grunts; as well as making a clicking that sounds similar to the insects from Mimic.

The prevalent mystery is what exactly 'Them' are. With only fleeting glimpses, suggesting something human sized covered in a hood, they are able to become simultaneously something almost recognizable and completely unknowable. There is however a small visual clue that is suggestive of what they are, but I won't mention that here; I have renounced my spoiler giving ways.

However, as is inevitable, the film is not perfect. Once the action moves outside of the house and into the forest, the claustrophobic feel is lost, and though the last act is plenty intense in of itself, it fails to recapture the sheer intensity found in the previous act. The film has what can be best described in a double-sided sword when it comes to the ultimate unveiling of 'Them'; when a movie spends so much time focusing on a menace that is as mysterious as it is dangerous, expectations are bound to be raised pretty high. As other movies in the past, the revelation is rarely up to the viewer's expectations, and the same definitely applies here. Upon the first viewing, when all was said and done, I was left feeling more than a little hollow. However, seeing the film a second time, knowing full well what was trying to kill the happy couple made the experience all the more harrowing. As it is in real life, there are no easy answers given for why Clementine and Lucas are being put through Hell, and by the time the sombre conclusion rolls around, it is evident that the film is all the more effective without having a neat and tidy little explanation.

For those of you are tired of seeing movies where someone is dismembered and beaten to death with their own limbs by a cackling surgeon/ice cream man/real estate agent/cults, etc...and want to remember what it is like to be truly scared, you owe it to yourself to check this out. Torture Porn is dead! Long live torture porn!