Synopsis
They're already inside.
Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise. They're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night.
2006 ‘Ils’ Directed by David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise. They're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night.
ils, Spiel oder stirb, Them - Spiel oder stirb, Eles, Oni, 正体不明 THEM ゼム, Они, Ellos, אותם, Ells, ŐK, Onlar, 뎀, 恐怖系统, 正体不明 THEM
European cinema is best known for its disturbing narratives filled with relentless violence, gore and brutality when it comes to horror and fans like me love all this but Them was a different experience altogether, that didn't rely on all the above-said stuff and surprisingly it turned out to be pretty good.
It opens with a dysfunctional mother and daughter driving and arguing at night. Suddenly, ostensibly trying to avoid a person on the road, the mother swerves, resulting in a collision with a pole. The mother goes out to look under the hood and vanishes; the daughter calls out, but is frightened and retreats to the car. Before she can phone the authorities, she’s strangled. Cut to a French…
A 'Choose your own adventure'- sort of review. Please feel free to grab a spare pair of pants on the way in.
You're in bed, alone after a night of watching tv and liking lists on Letterboxd. It's cold and raining outside as you sleep.....
....but you wake up at 03:46am though you're not quite sure why or what interrupted your slumber. Your house is dead silent. Your bedroom stinks of farts and you remind yourself never to eat expired peanuts EVER again......
...then you hear what sounds like a children's toy, a clacker of sorts. From downstairs. From the dark. You're just imagining things. Probably. Watching too many movies can warp fragile minds. The hairs on the back of…
Unfortunately, Them is not part of the New French Extremity trend, although it being a 2006 release would lead one to assume that. Unlike Frontiers or Inside, Them's lack of gore and shock values is almost inexcusable, although there are things to enjoy about this underwhelming slasher.
Them is your typical invasion horror with a twist. The setting of a French couple getting terrorized in Romania is somehow intriguing, and the filming location of a genuinely creepy house in the middle of nowhere is perfectly apt. Having said that, the buildup of the plot is rather predictable and cliched for the usually creative French horror scene. It's tense for its own good, but also loses its steam along the way. I do applaud its rather effective ending, which gives the story its glow of social consciousness, but overall it's hard to call Them a memorable horror classic.
Often associated with the New French Extremity movement which is responsible for some of the most disturbing works of 21st century horror (Inside, Martyrs & High Tension), Them (also known as Ils) may not feature the same level of brutality that the aforementioned examples pack in but it still works as an incessantly tense, gripping & stimulating work of its genre.
Supposedly based on real events, the story follows a young couple who live a peaceful life in an isolated country house but are woken by strange noises one night. What transpires next is a dreadful night of unrelenting terror as they find themselves being tormented by what appears to be a group of hooded assailants who are after their lives for…
Them follows a young couple who live in a cavernous home in the middle of a rural countryside as they are tormented by mysterious strangers in a night of terror.
The home is a great location to play around with. It's wide open and seemingly never ending chain of rooms, attics and hallways leave many places for unseen dangers to lurk. The vastness helps make it feel like an impossible to defend place. And though the budget is often a factor there are some genuinely excellent anxiety inducing action set pieces. The sadistic home invasion stuff reaches near Haneke level button pushing at a few points where we really feel like the predators are playing with their prey.
All that…
Film 13/45 for Hooptober 4.0
5/6 of 6 Countries (France)
I wanted to rewatch this one because I really couldn’t remember any of it from the first time I saw it...which was almost 10 years ago...and damn, now I feel old...but, anywho, I had given it a really high rating and remember liking it so it must be worth a revisit, right?
This is a very straightforward movie that doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is...which is a home invasion thriller. It’s lean, it’s very mean, and it’s effective. It gives you just enough backstory to feel a little something for the characters under siege...although I didn’t feel terribly upset for them so it probably could have…
A couples tranquil life in their isolated home is abruptly interrupted when a group of hoodlums break in and start terrorizing them.
This French Extremity based on true events is more like a intensified thriller that keeps you glued to the edge of your seat. Starts out slow as the characters become more familiar but soon starts building suspense and holding the tension right up to the shocking end.
The horror is not blood and gore but the tension and scare of not knowing who or why. This film don't spill the beans until right up to the end and the two main leads give a convincing frightening performance.
The Afterwords about the true events is actually shocking and disturbing in itself.
7.5/10
For anyone following me last year, you may have seen I was directing a home invasion horror movie that got cut short because lf covid. Well we resume shooting on it this weekend.
Because of that, I have been watching home invasion movies all week. In my opinion, the two greats of this subgenre in recent years are Funny Games and Inside. However, this little gem, Ils, is pretty damn great too.
This movie came out in that rush of French extremists horror movies. This magical time that France was taking the world by storm and picking up for America's slack. But that was a movement that ended as quickly as it started.
Ils unfortunately was overshadowed in many directions.…
There's a great shot in this of a woman fidgeting with a door to try and get it to close and lock so she can avoid being murdered and the camera moves just slightly to the left and out of focus you can see a shadow of a figure for about one second, and it's just fantastic. THEM is very strong when it engages with that sort of minimalist chase for life. The problem is that they reveal the threat too early and the last twenty minutes or so feel less like escaping an elemental force of evil, like in HALLOWEEN, and more like two adults trying to outsmart a bunch of kids to stay alive. That's the plot of…
HORRORx52 (2021)
Progress: 10/52
19. Made in France
A home invasion horror where the main characters make incredibly dumb decisions. Name a more iconic duo. This subgenre has been done to death so it takes something rather innovative to make an impact. There’s nothing special about Them. In fact, it’s so blasé that I was checking the time once the supposed tension was just starting. European horror from this era tends to be extreme and I was expecting something that would cut deep. The reveal at the end was supposed to give that effect I guess, but it left me shrugging my shoulders. It’s hard to care when your characters purposefully put themselves in danger. Why is this movie so darkly lit? The terrible DVD quality stream on Shudder and general shakey cam filming style made everything worse. You’d be better off watching Funny Games or The Strangers.