Knock Knock

Film: Them (Ils)
Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on Fire!

French Extremity films are generally a tough sell for me. While I tend find them meaningful and worth watching, they are also really difficult to watch a lot of the time. For anyone interested in the harder edge of horror without wanting to risk too much in the way of gore, Them (Ils in French) is a great place to start. This is a film that is very interested in scaring the audience as much as possible without dipping into the gore that tends to mark the style.

Our opening scene gives us an idea of what is ahead of us. A mother and daughter have an accident on a desolate road at night. As they attempt to repair their car, the mother vanishes. The daughter, attempting to keep herself safe soon discovers that who or whatever took her mother has the keys and is attempting to unlock the car doors. After a few more moments, the daughter is strangled from behind.

Our attention then shifts to who will be our main characters/victims for the rest of the film. These are Clémentine (Olivia Bonamy) and Lucas (Michaël Cohen). Clémentine passes the car from the opening scene being towed away, but thinks nothing of it. That night, she is awakened by music outside of the house; when they investigate, they discover her car has been moved. Lucas approaches and the car drives off. Returning to the house, he discovers a television on and a tap running.

And this is where we are going to start dealing with intruders. Lucas is wounded by a glass shard from when he takes a swing at an intruder with a fireplace poker. The couple runs, locking themselves in an upstairs room. When Clémentine goes to look for a way out, she encounters an intruder and pushes him off a balcony. But there is at least one more in the house, and the couple decides to flee. Lucas’s injury slows them down, however, and when they reach a tall fence, he is unable to scale it to continue to safety.

What we discover eventually, as Clémentine and Lucas start to fight back, is that the attackers are not burglars, but youths. Certainly the ones that we see throughout, including those who are eventually attacked by both Clémentine and Lucas, are no more than 15 or 16. This is ultimately what is the scariest part of the film. This is not something that is happening for monetary gain or even some sort of perverted sexual fetish. The attacks on Clémentine and Lucas appear to be entirely motivated by kids looking for something to do, kids who are bored and perhaps desensitized to the world around them.

As mentioned above, Them is very short on gore, but it’s not short on scares. Home invasion movies tend to be scary when well done specifically because of the subgenre. We like to think that when we are home, we are safe, that nothing bad will happen to us when we are home and with our things. Home invasion movies throw that notion on its head, telling us that we aren’t safe anywhere, and that there will always be someone who can get to us wherever we might be.

Them is also smart in that it doesn’t really spend a lot of time doing anything that doesn’t impact the plot. It has a spare 77-minute running time, and it runs without any fat. After that opening scene to establish what is happening, we get just enough time with Clémentine and Lucas to get us to care about them as people and to are about what might happen to them when they start being attacked. We have skin in the game in terms of them understanding what is going on and getting to safety because we’ve seen just enough of their life to decide that these are people we want to survive. Ultimately, that’s what makes a horror movie work—we have to care about people and want them to survive for us to stay engaged. Them does this as quickly as possible and spends the rest of the time putting those people into harm’s way.

If I have a complaint about Them, it’s that the ending, while absolutely terrifying, is also very unsatisfying. We get a conclusion that is just about perfect for the film, but then get an epilogue that lands like a wet rag. The text that shows up undercuts the ending of the film. It’s a case where the closure that is gain from the text epilogue actually makes the ending less satisfying in a lot of ways. Cut those 45-60 seconds, and this becomes a far better and more interesting film, and one that is a lot scarier.

However, without that, there’s pretty much nothing to complain about. Scary, and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome—that’s exactly what a horror movie should be.

Why to watch Them: Home invasion movies are scary.
Why not to watch: The resolution is unsatisfying.