They don't make Them like they used to...

While Them is more of a suspense/chase film than anything it would appear that on the whole the French still treat horror as a legitimate genre. Here this is evident in every aspect of the film, from the fantastically understated musical score, to the strikingly gorgeous, earth-tone heavy cinematography. From the beginning the lead actors lend the film a quiet dignity, as the couple (Lucas and Clem) moves very naturally from tenderness to playfulness and back again. They seem intimately comfortable with one another, yet at the same time enchanted as they pass their time at a large, minimally restored, but charming and elegant country house.

This all serves to set up solid ground work so that throughout the second half of the film the audience is able to plant themselves firmly inside the fear that the characters experience. Effective tricks like a bedroom scene shot in real-time (as documented by an unobtrusive digital radio-alarm clock in the corner or the frame) and a taut pace tempered with achingly slow creep-down-the-hallway scenes all work together to unite the viewer with the terror growing inside Lucas and Clementine. Allegedly based on a true story, the film ends the only way it can, I suppose. It may not satisfy gore-hounds, but, within the context of this film, the closing sequences deftly brings a chilling close to this disturbing tale.

8/10