Them (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
Them is a 2006 French horror film
directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud.
Olivia Bonamy
plays Clementine, a young teacher, who has recently moved from France to a remote but idyllic country house near Bucharest
, Romania
with her lover Lucas played by Michael Cohen.
The next day, Clementine, driving home from work, passes the crashed car, unaware of the previous night's events. She is greeted at home by her lover, Lucas. The two settle in for the night, enjoying dinner and watching television. After the two go to bed, Clementine is awakened by the sound of movement outside. They go outside to investigate, where their car is driven off by persons unknown. They returning upstairs, and Lucas goes back downstairs alone to find the TV back on. He re-actively swings a poker at a sudden movement and shatters the glass in a French door. The door is then pushed from behind, causing a large fragment of glass to bury itself in his leg. Frantically, he escapes back up to Clementine in the bedroom above, and the two lock the door and try to formulate an escape plan. Clementine then climbs into the attic to find an escape route. As Clementine searches the attic, one of the intruders grabs her from behind, she fights him off and pushes him off her third story balcony. The intruder's body is soon surrounded by several other people. The couple find themselves surrounded and make a desperate attempt to escape the house.
The pair succeed in escaping and manage to limp out into the surrounding woodland. They soon find they are being followed, and hide in some undergrowth as the invaders run past. They head deeper into the woods, only to encounter a fence. Due to his injury, Lucas cannot climb. So he waits behind, hiding in the bushes as Clementine heads for help. As she runs through the forest, Clementine notices she is being surrounded. She spots an isolated car and runs to it. Inside, she tries to start the car to no avail, as the attackers close in.
Lucas limps from the bushes upon hearing Clementine's screams, and finds the car crashed into a tree. He kills one of the attackers and discovers it is merely a young boy. He follows Clementine's screams and finds an uncovered manhole. In the sewers, he finds Clementine being tortured by a teenage boy while another sits nearby telling the torturer to stop as he's hurting her. Sneaking up behind him, Lucas kills him. With the help of the younger boy, the two escape through the sewer system. However as the attackers catch up on them, the boy turns on them, causing Lucas to fall as they try to escape up a ladder. Clementine watches in horror as her partner is dragged away. As Clementine is about to kill the boy with a large rock, he turns to Clementine and asks, "Why won't you play with us?" Clementine throws the rock at the young boy and begins her escape through the remaining tunnels to the surface. Clementine eventually finds a gridded sewer entrance leading out onto a highway, but the grid is locked, and she is dragged off to the same terrible fate as Lucas.
The film ends with shots of the countryside and a group of hooded children running for a public bus. Most of the children are boys with the exception of one girl. Just before the credits roll, it is revealed through text that the bodies of Clementine and Lucas were found five days after the events of the movie, that the murderers were children aged 10–15, and that upon interrogation, the youngest of the group revealed as an explanation of that night's events that "They wouldn't play with us."
, with Jonathan Ross
of the BBC calling it "77 minutes of gloriously maintained tension".
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud.
Olivia Bonamy
Olivia Bonamy
Olivia Bonamy is a French actress best known for her appearances in the films Jefferson in Paris, Jacques Audiard's Read my lips, the thriller Ils and Le ciel, les oiseaux et ta mère.-Biography:...
plays Clementine, a young teacher, who has recently moved from France to a remote but idyllic country house near Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
with her lover Lucas played by Michael Cohen.
Story
The film opens with a mother and daughter driving along a deserted country road at night. During an argument the mother swerves to avoid a figure in the road and crashes into a wooden post. She gets out to check the engine, as the car will not start, while her daughter waits in the car. After a period of silence the daughter calls to her mother. Receiving no reply, she gets out. Her mother is gone. She calls for her mother and her call is repeated from the surrounding woods by a whispery voice. Scared, she gets back into the car. Suddenly, noises come from the woods around her and mud is thrown against the windows. The young girl tries desperately to contact the police using a cell phone but she is strangled to death from behind.The next day, Clementine, driving home from work, passes the crashed car, unaware of the previous night's events. She is greeted at home by her lover, Lucas. The two settle in for the night, enjoying dinner and watching television. After the two go to bed, Clementine is awakened by the sound of movement outside. They go outside to investigate, where their car is driven off by persons unknown. They returning upstairs, and Lucas goes back downstairs alone to find the TV back on. He re-actively swings a poker at a sudden movement and shatters the glass in a French door. The door is then pushed from behind, causing a large fragment of glass to bury itself in his leg. Frantically, he escapes back up to Clementine in the bedroom above, and the two lock the door and try to formulate an escape plan. Clementine then climbs into the attic to find an escape route. As Clementine searches the attic, one of the intruders grabs her from behind, she fights him off and pushes him off her third story balcony. The intruder's body is soon surrounded by several other people. The couple find themselves surrounded and make a desperate attempt to escape the house.
The pair succeed in escaping and manage to limp out into the surrounding woodland. They soon find they are being followed, and hide in some undergrowth as the invaders run past. They head deeper into the woods, only to encounter a fence. Due to his injury, Lucas cannot climb. So he waits behind, hiding in the bushes as Clementine heads for help. As she runs through the forest, Clementine notices she is being surrounded. She spots an isolated car and runs to it. Inside, she tries to start the car to no avail, as the attackers close in.
Lucas limps from the bushes upon hearing Clementine's screams, and finds the car crashed into a tree. He kills one of the attackers and discovers it is merely a young boy. He follows Clementine's screams and finds an uncovered manhole. In the sewers, he finds Clementine being tortured by a teenage boy while another sits nearby telling the torturer to stop as he's hurting her. Sneaking up behind him, Lucas kills him. With the help of the younger boy, the two escape through the sewer system. However as the attackers catch up on them, the boy turns on them, causing Lucas to fall as they try to escape up a ladder. Clementine watches in horror as her partner is dragged away. As Clementine is about to kill the boy with a large rock, he turns to Clementine and asks, "Why won't you play with us?" Clementine throws the rock at the young boy and begins her escape through the remaining tunnels to the surface. Clementine eventually finds a gridded sewer entrance leading out onto a highway, but the grid is locked, and she is dragged off to the same terrible fate as Lucas.
The film ends with shots of the countryside and a group of hooded children running for a public bus. Most of the children are boys with the exception of one girl. Just before the credits roll, it is revealed through text that the bodies of Clementine and Lucas were found five days after the events of the movie, that the murderers were children aged 10–15, and that upon interrogation, the youngest of the group revealed as an explanation of that night's events that "They wouldn't play with us."
Reception
The film has been well received internationally, and, as of 2008, has a 63% (fresh) rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
of the BBC calling it "77 minutes of gloriously maintained tension".
Reviews
- Review of 'Them' at the 2006 Edinburgh Film Festival
- 'Them' Review by CineWorld Cinemas
- A negative review of 'Them' at the academic journal Lingua Romana
- Them at MetaCriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- Them at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...