Them (aka Ils) [reviewed by Jori]

Them (Ils) David Moreau & Xavier Palud, 2006 (77 min.)
Language: French (English subtitles available)
My rating:
IMDB

Tension makes up for the lack of legitimate scares.

* * *

Who isn’t afraid of moving to a new place? And I don’t mean just getting your own house, I mean moving to an entirely different country. It’s a legitimate fear that everyone has and Ils does a good job of highlighting the sense of isolation and confusion that goes with the territory. (And? Olivia Bonamy is possibly the hottest French woman on the planet!)

It starts out with a bang—a mother and daughter get into a car accident on a deserted road at night, and end up getting attacked by unseen villains. You would think that has relevance to the story, right? You would be slightly wrong. What I mean is that the whole point of the opening sequence is just foreshadowing for what our main characters will be encountering. It’s getting there that takes a bit of effort.

Clémentine (Olivia Bonamy) and her boyfriend Lucas (Michaël Cohen) have relocated to Romania—he’s a writer and she teaches French to Romanian children. They live in an enormous house right smack in the middle of nowhere. (Cheaper rent, maybe?) After the usual scenes establishing their relationship (they love each other) and shots of the beautiful house (have I mentioned it’s huge?) we get to the good stuff. They are being terrorized by a group of unseen people. What’s interesting (well, for me at least) is that it is all psychological games. They (and you) are under the impression that they are being hunted. But if you stop to think about it for a moment, you realize that the intruders don’t really do anything to harm them. Well, unless of course you consider messing with their heads and keeping their bodies on a constant adrenaline rush harmful (we could debate about that, but we won’t. We’re all right, OK?) So do Clementine and Lucas survive the evening? Will we find out who is behind this? And the most popular question ever: Why?

Besides dragging a bit through the beginning parts of the “assault,” Ils does a great job of keeping the tension high. This is in part thanks to great acting by Olivia Bonamy. I could even feel myself starting to get anxious in response to her hysteria. This is key, because without the tension, there is nothing. It’s not scary or creepy, there is no gore and there isn’t much substance to the story. Those factors would normally be the kiss of death for any film that is supposed to be considered horror—but the atmosphere was maintained at a such a good pace that you feel that tightening in your chest anyway.

By no means is this the best movie out there, but it is certainly quite good. You just have to be in the right frame of mind in order to watch it. It’s like popping in a Robin Williams movie—if you expect it to be his usual comedic role and it turns out to be a drama (like Jakob the Liar) you will undoubtedly be disappointed no matter if the film itself is any good. It’s all about expectations. So forget being terrified or the joys of a good bloodbath. However, I can promise you an hour of sitting on the edge of your seat. Besides, the end is worth the journey.

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About Jori

Being a stubborn girl, Jori insisted on watching scary movies as a little girl and proclaiming "I'm not scared!" from behind her oma's rocking chair. Much sleep was lost in the early years due to paralyzing fear, and her uncle Albert deserves a special mention for unwittingly showing her Monkey Shines. Jori spends her adult life trying to recapture that initial feeling of terror that she experienced as a child. Follow her on Twitter at @fvjori.

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