They (2002)

Wonderful character development!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Blistering performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Trying to gain her psychology master, a student suffering from night terrors as well as several of her friends learn that they're being triggered by a series of attacks brought by creatures living in the shadows and must find a way of stopping them from continuing to hunt them.This was a decent if overall rather forgettable effort. Among the few things it does right here is really sell the idea of the strange creatures and their world they represent here that there's a great framework needed for horror villains. The idea of marking their prey through night terrors as a child and then coming back to collect them as adults is quite an effective idea, and the rules needed for them to become viable once again makes for a rather enjoyable creature here. From their ability to tamper with electricity by causing blackouts or surges enough to break the light altogether or the way in which they create a sense of loneliness in their attacks, it has the sort of general fear and desperation of being attacked by that kind of entity. Likewise, beyond this setup there's also the film's incredibly fun and frantic attack scenes of the creatures getting into play here as this one has some awesome scenes here, from the swimming pool encounter and his scenes in the apartment to the absolutely stellar stalking scenes in the tunnel after the train trip all being fast, frantic scenes that are much better than expected. Still, that's also what signals the start of the flaws here as these attack scenes are so haphazard and tame that there's very little appeal to the scenes as they're so bloodless and utterly devoid of any kind of true horror appreciation since they're edited to try to be chilling but can't because of the rating. Not having any kind of blood or gore in here during all these different attacks is an immensely distressing factor here by this one never really getting any kind of big effect which sells what's going on as it misses the big picture of the scenes. There's also the fact that there's such a discrepancy with the scenes here in being long, involved scenes compared to the other scenes which are fast and really crazed that it creates a really disjointed pacing of making the action scenes look good until the kills and has long, bland scenes in between them. The last flaw here is the creatures' lack of explanation for appearance here as there's never anything given about why they target the people, how they work or anything about them and it makes them far less frightening. These here are what really holds this one back.Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

After the smash hit (American version) The Ring in 2001, many other horror films tried to copy its formula. Some succeeded (like the US version of The Grudge), but most fell into the forgotten abyss of B-movie horror.'They' comes somewhere between the two. It's not as good as either The Ring or The Grudge, but it's not as terrible as some of its fellow genre movies. It tells the story of a woman who experienced 'night terrors' as a child. Now grown up, strange things start to happen which indicate that the night terrors are coming back again.The good: it's quite short. If you really hate it, you won't feel like you've wasted too much of your life on it. Also, the 'night terrors' are quite creepy, both in the weird 'trilling' sounds they make, plus what you do get to see of them (which isn't that much).The bad: not much of a budget. No recognisable stars and some may feel that you don't really get to see enough of the 'night terrors' to work out what they actually look like. Also, I've seen a lot of online criticism of the main actress - it ranges from her looks (apparently she has a 'long neck' and even an 'adams apple' to her acting ability. Okay, she was never going to win an Oscar for her performance, but I didn't think she was any worse than any other 'scream queen' in a similar type of film.If you fancy another 'Ring-esque' type of film, you might like to give this one a go.

Honestly, some of the reviews of this movie are ridiculous. It's not as bad as they're saying. I've seen better but I've seen far worse. There's nothing terribly wrong with this movie and I was entertained throughout.The cinematography was excellent and some of the direction was inspired (eg not really showing what THEY look like). But for some reason it kept killing the suspense. I cant really put my finger on what caused that, maybe uneven pacing, possibly script issues, maybe the acting wasn't always top notch. I was actually puzzling over that while I was watching the flick. There'd be a suspenseful build up and then it would sort of leak away rapidly and be replaced by dull spots. Very disconcerting. There are definitely very scary moments and set pieces that are suspenseful and well directed/acted etc. The scene in the subway was fantastic in every respect, for example. But the scene where the artist guy was in a spot of trouble didn't seem to hit the mark. It was a bit rushed and - unlike with the awesome subway scene - I didn't get any atmosphere of terror or urgency at all. Sorry, this review probably isn't very helpful. I just can't nail why the movie fell short. I read that it's better than the later, similar movie The Darkness, which is a shame because the ideas involved are so good. I hope someone can come along and take the potential of They to greater heights. The premise is fantastic, it just needed a little more coherence and tightly drawn tension.Regardless, the movie's definitely worth watching and has enough going for it to make it a good choice for fans of the spooky kind of horror rather than the slash & gore kind. It certainly doesn't deserve some of the flack it's getting in the reviews here but that's not unusual at IMDb. My advice is rent it and judge for yourself. For the record I loved the ending, I didn't see that coming at all and it was a really bold step. But reading now about the alternative ending I wish they'd played more on the ideas that other ending choice brought in. I love the fact that there are clues to the alternative ending scattered throughout the movie and in that context you realise how much more depth the movie had to offer. Someone messed up along the way. I will also be following up on the original script someone mentioned with the whole "your existence is wiped from everyone's memory" angle. That sounded intriguing.Anyway, I'm digressing wildly now. Just go rent it and make up your own mind. I promise you, it's not as bad as some are saying. It's actually quite good.

After her childhood friend Billy (Jon Abrahams) commits suicide, convinced that something waiting in the dark is going to eat him, psychology student Julia Lund (Laura Regan) becomes convinced that she is also being stalked by creatures who intend to to her harm.My automatic reaction to seeing the words 'Wes Craven presents' on a DVD cover used to be to put it straight back where it came from: to me, having a film-maker who has zero connection with a production lend his name to help shift units smacked of desperation. The strange thing is, having now seen a few of the films that Wes has endorsed, I can honestly say that they're not as bad as a lot of horror films I've seen (including a few of Craven's own!).'They', for instance, is is a textbook example of how to develop a solid scary movie out of the flimsiest of set-ups; the story (if one can even call it that) goes absolutely nowhere over the course of an hour and a half, but is fun while it lasts. Director Robert Harmon wrings every last ounce of tension from his unexceptional set-up, preying on the audience's inherent fear of the unknown, repeatedly immersing his characters in darkness where something dreadful lurks waiting to whisk them away to somewhere terrible.Harmon wisely keeps the film's creatures, who attack those who are afraid of the dark, as indistinct as possible, well aware that what the viewer will conjure up in their mind will be far more terrifying than any CGI special effect. All Harmon shows us are vague, inhuman forms scuttling in the shadows, making some really creepy sounds as they stalk their victim—and that's all is really required to deliver some decent jump scares and hair-raising moments of fear.Sadly, after such a fine build up, the film wraps up matters in a really weak fashion no matter which of the two endings you watch: ending A) Julia's mad and the creatures don't exist, or ending B) Julia's not mad and the creatures do exist. Neither makes for a particularly satisfying conclusion, but neither is terrible enough for one to dismiss the film entirely.