DVD Review region 2
Directed by David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Starring Olivia Bonamy, Michaël Cohen
Release date 2 July 2007

French couple, Clementine and Lucas are enjoying a new life in Romania. But one night their idyllic existence is shattered when their isolated mansion comes under attack from mysterious and murderous strangers…

When it comes to horror, less is often more. Such is the case with Them. It certainly can’t be accused of originality, isn’t particularly ambitious, provides only the sketchiest background to its two protagonists and is under 80 minutes long. Yet within those confines it effectively manages to deliver a stripped-back, adrenaline-fuelled dose of horror.

Much of the film’s success comes from its relentlessness and the directors’ skill in maintaining suspense. An introductory scene, in which a mother and daughter are slaughtered by a roadside, serves as a sadistic starter to the main feast. There follows a few brief scenes that establish the characters of Clementine and Lucas and then the action begins, never letting up until the closing credits. Moreau and Palud keep edits down to a minimum, creating a documentary feel which adds a grim sense of realism. From the moment their house is besieged the film follows the couple, largely in real time, with long, uninterrupted shots that slowly build the tension and skillfully tighten a claustrophobic sense of dread.

Them has the good sense to realise that the unseen and suggested are always more terrifying than any amount of gory special effects. For the vast majority of its short running time the invaders remain shadowy figures, half-glimpsed pursuing their victims, pounding on the other side of doors; their presence acknowledged by the power suddenly being cut or a TV set mysteriously turned back on. When they are finally revealed it inevitably comes as somewhat of a let-down, but the bleakness of the ending acts as a stark punctuation mark and keeps the film from collapsing into the bathos of something like the similar, though vastly inferior, Vacancy.

DVD extras include a selection of making-of features, a ‘police press conference’ with Clementine’s (bizarrely English sounding) sister and information on the plight of Romania’s street children. Joe Green

VERDICT: 7/10
A tight, effectively handled horror that achieves what it sets out to do with considerable style.

Click here for the original cinema review.