by: Letitia
Posted on 02.07.10 in Action/Adventure > All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense
Release Date: 2006

The French-language film Ils (Them), directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, is one of the least original yet most tense and frightening movies I’ve seen in years. Although its bag of tricks is a well-worn one (think The Strangers, Funny Games, or any other movie that involves a couple being pointlessly terrorized by unseen or unknown enemies), and although the characters sometimes do the very dense things that characters in horror movies always seem to do, the movie still somehow manages to be frightening, effective, and beautiful to look at.

Though the film takes place in Romania, it is primarily in French. Clementine, played with a lovely charm and naturalness by Olivia Boname, is a teacher at a French school in Romania. She and her husband Lucas, a writer who doesn’t seem to do much writing (which is always the way writers are in movies, isn’t it? I suppose showing a writer writing is too boring), live in an old mansion in the process of being remodeled. She knows Romanian, but isn’t fluent. Lucas, played by Michael Cohen, doesn’t know any Romanian at all. This language confusion adds some interesting levels of tension to the film. If you’ve ever been in a non-English speaking country and tried to find a bathroom, for example, you’ll know that prick of frustration that comes when can’t express yourself as well as you’d like to. Now, imagine trying to explain to the police that your house is being terrorized by hooded figures in a language you don’t quite understand.

The film’s setting, a particularly lush and rural part of Bucharest, Romania in the summertime, is filmed in highly saturated color. At night, the greens are darkly vibrant, and during the day, the setting looks like an only half-tamed forest, the greens so bright that it’s almost hard to look at the screen. Moreau and Palud’s direction and use of color and space create a sense that we are almost on another planet or in another time. Although it’s probably a cliché that Eastern Europe is tired of, the movie plays on the idea of Romania as a place that is somewhat baffling, impenetrable, and dangerous to outsiders.

The film’s plot consists of almost nothing more than a young couple, living in a rambling, creepy house, being attacked in their home by several figures in hooded sweatshirts. The fact that we don’t really see the figures works quite well, at least for a while. As the film goes on, Clementine and Lucas are forced into smaller and smaller parts of their enormous house, a plot device that always surprises me when it works because I’ve seen it so many times before. When Lucas and Clementine make it outside, though (don’t ask me to explain exactly how—the house used in this film is labyrinthine and filled with inexplicably furnished rooms, such as one filled entirely with hanging plastic sheets) the movie starts to drag.

These home-invasion movies are terrifying because they take our worst fear—being harmed in a place that is supposed to mean comfort and safety—and make characters the target of often pointless and vicious crimes. So, when the movie moves outside the bounds of the house, it becomes a bit less effective and less believable. Clementine and Lucas’ journey through the woods reduces the tension in the movie and, unfortunately, leaves the viewer to think about some of the more puzzling aspects of the plot. For example, how did this group of intruders know the ins and outs of this sprawling mansion? Given the revelation at the end of the movie, this aspect is even more puzzling. Also, Clementine and Lucas, once they get out of the house, do the kinds of things that annoy people who don’t like to watch horror movies—they get in cars that are clearly not empty, they run when they should hide and hide when they should run, etc. But, of course, if I were being chased by hooded guys with crowbars, I might be a bit less than effective in my reasoning abilities, too.

Although Ils is effective, it isn’t the most original of horror movies. If you are a sucker for atmosphere and tension, this movie is a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall:

This film is very effective in terms of scares. In many scenes the tension is built amazingly well. The only problem, as you have mentioned, it's been done millions of times. I just don't think it has ever been done this well, to tell you the truth. Enough can't be said about the ending. The conclusion is horrifying. Highly recommended and far more so than The Strangers and Funny Games.