Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen
Written by David Moreau and Xavier Palud
Produced by Richard Grandpierre
Cinematography by Axel Cosnefroy
Certification UK 15 | France 12
Runtime 77 minutes
Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud
Them — or Ils, to give it the original French title — is a curious little thriller. When it goes all out for tension, it delivers by the bucket load. The problems come once the adrenaline stops pumping and the gaping holes in the plot become visible. After an opening sequence that pretty much rivals the first 10 Drew Barrymore minutes of Scream, the action switches to a young teacher, Clementine (Olivia Bonamy). She drives past the scene of the previous night’s incident — now the scene of a big clean up operation — and returns to the sprawling mansion in the middle of nowhere and her novelist boyfriend Lucas (Michael Cohen).
A sprawling mansion? In the middle of nowhere? Hmm. Can you tell where the action’s going to take place? Night falls, strange noises disturb the couple, and they find themselves terrorised by assailant(s) unseen. What follows is 70-odd minutes of effective chase movie. Directors David Moreau and Xavier Paludo crank the tension up to 10, keep you jumping and throw in every visual cliché you can think of, from the under-renovation room covered in polythene — a favourite trick of Doctor Who these days — to the creaky loft, the double staircase, the TV flicking on, etc. Then it all culminates in a chase through the woods followed by a chase through the sewers.
And at this adrenaline-fuelled level, Them is as effective an exercise in heart-pumping as 10 espressos and a chocolate biscuit. Sadly, it all makes little sense. The resolution — a shock, social explanation that should have hit with the force of a Louisville Slugger in the dangly bits — is rushed and the whole thing just falls apart. And why rush a denouement when the film has only run 77 minutes as it is? Did they run out of film? Did they have to get back to relieve the babysitter?
There’s some real potential here and there are times when the action — as derivative as it is — can even unsettle a hoary old critic who’s seen way too many of these movies over the years and can generally predict, to the millisecond, when something “scary” is going to happen. But the overall execution doesn’t live up to the promise of the early scares. File under “close but no cigar.”