(a.k.a. ILS;
directors/screenwriters: David Moreau and Xavier Palud).
Review
Plot: Creep-about sadists toy with a couple in their isolated country home.
Based on real-life Romanian
murders (a couple was stalked and killed by three teenagers), THEM is a
promising French thriller that goes quickly awry. The lead actors’ performances
are great, even real reactions sometimes (actress Olivia Bonamy, claustrophobic
in real life, crawled through narrow tunnels). The set-up pre-terror scenes are
well-written, there’s palpable sense of isolation and unease throughout the
film, but the all-flight-little-fight characters are dumb, even for a
stalk-torture-kill film. At several points, they could’ve easily finished off a
killer or two after knocking them down, but what do they do? They run.
After the second time, I stopped caring about the characters, knowing how this
was likely to go. More than an overlong hour later, it finally happens. . . all
style, little substance, with a great, bleakly hilarious end-shot of one of the
main characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment