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12/02/02

1 hr. 29 mins.
Starring: Laura Regan, Marc Blucas, Ethan Embry, Dagmara Dominczyk, Jon Abrahams, Jessica Amlee, Jonathan Cherry
Directed by: Robert Harmon

Rating: ** ½ stars (out of 4 stars)

Well it appears as though the Wes Craven factory of frightfest filmmaking is back at it once again. In director Robert Harmon’s (The Hitcher) chilling yet profoundly absurd entry Wes Craven Presents: They, we won’t find anything calculating beyond the rudimentary expectations of something familiar such as The Nightmare on Elm Street series. But what Harmon and screenwriter Brendan Hood manage to do is effectively offer the pleasurable shock treatment in this palatable, silly goose-bump piece of shlock cinema.

They won’t be one of the most insightful or intellectual scarefests you’ll come across in your big screen travels. Nevertheless, it will definitely reinforce your giddy nerves and push the paranoia button with zany and alarming delight. They may pale in comparison to the spooky box office clout of the previously released popularity of The Ring but it has its own dastardly and distinctive aura to behold. Overall, this flawed gory gem is creepy and campy fun.

Harmon’s bursting B-movie macabre tells the tale of psychology graduate student Julia Lund (Laura Regan), a young woman who continuously suffers from recurring “night terrors” that were a holdover from her childhood days of yesteryear. The nightmarish episodes that ring in her head involve the scary 19 year-old incident about her best friend Billy (Jon Abrahams) and his disappearance one frightening evening when taken captive by “them” under his bed one ominous evening. Billy miraculously came back to tell of his freakish ordeal to Julia and believes that these shadowy creatures do roam in the night searching for viable victims. Heck, the creatures even found time to “mark” Billy with a bizarre tattoo in the process.

Naturally, Julia soaks up this revelation with cautionary consideration. In fact, her shrinks try and console her about her cockeyed psychological observations. But Julia isn’t as crazy as her mental health handlers believe her to be. The fact remains that there are demonic creatures from another world that randomly use Julia’s closet door as a means of invading her personal world. Soon others-more importantly Billy’s closest friends--start to experience the presence of these cretins who love to turn up when the darkness descends. The only factor that detracts these evil forces that use the dark as their shield is the obvious opposite-the element of light. And thus Julia and the gang find themselves heeding the warning of the suicidal Billy as they combat the deadly and lurking creatures-of-the-night figures that swear to wreak havoc on its jittery human headcases.

Without a doubt, They features some preposterous components about it that spells “ludicrous”. But that’s the devilish appeal to this hokey horror flick. Harmon’s direction and Hood’s script is savvy enough to present this frivolous finger-biting thriller as an atmospheric and subtle tension-induced session of suspicion. Wisely, the creatures come off to the audience as sketchy and ambiguous as they do to the head-scratching protagonists partaking in the mayhem. The filmmakers are clever to combine the genre-related wackiness of the film’s goofy conventions with that of a soul-searching subtext. The movie entertainingly begs the questions: What is it about these creatures and their persistence to invade our existence? Are they a figment of our imaginations or the source of ambivalence to our damaged psyche? Does other life forms exist out there or are we too self-centered to believe that we earthlings are the only main game in the universe?

The resistance to bombard this movie with over-indulgent, distracting special effects is uniquely admirable. Instead, Harmon and his technical crew help shape the mood of these proceedings by inviting the power of suggestion to do the suspenseful dirty work for the audience’s jumpy anticipations. Whether showcasing shoddy dim lighting that heightens the intensity or presenting murky set pieces that give off an inexplicable mystique, Harmon is shrewd and adventurous with his material. Sure, the spellbinding moments aren’t as generous and the fear factor is disappointingly spotty at times but the movie does celebrate its unorthodox approach with noted restraint. They is confident in its calming chaotic skin although the flick does demonstrate an uneven and disjointed jolt to the system occasionally.

The performances, particularly from lead player Laura Regan as the haunted heroine, are somewhat compelling and stable. With its hint of an awkward Hitchcockian theme in tact, Harmon’s daunting narrative promotes a reasonable landscape of conflict and pathos to support the scattershot terrorizing tone. As a half way decent supernatural thriller, Wes Craven Presents: They dares to scare your socks off without forcing the issue in a manipulative, over-the-top manner.

And sometimes, that’s not always a bad thing to endure.