STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND ARE EASY TARGETS FOR A KILLER
★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)
Director: David Moreau and Xavier Palud
2006
Before You’re Next or The Strangers or Hush were a twinkle in their creators’ eyes, the world was gifted Them (ils), a terrifying film about a home invasion in rural Romania. I do not recommend watching this alone at night, especially if you’re like me and live in a place where you hear crickets instead of sirens after the sun sets. Though very little scares me anymore—and these sort of stranger danger films have become predictable—Them made me check the locks three times, all thanks to sound editing and a scenario straight out of my second worst nightmare.
Clementine and Lucas, the couple at the center of the events, have moved from France to Romania, a country that tends to stir up a million toothy images. They live in an old-world mansion in a woods that is new to them, near a city that is new to them. The unfamiliarity of their surroundings adds another layer of fear when they realize someone has trapped them in their home. Horror movies with locales and language foreign to the victims (Hostel, Human Centipede, The Grudge) are particularly creepy because of the “Lost in Translation Element”, a trick that adds an extra layer of vulnerability. How do you ask for directions? Who do you go to in an emergency? When I was in Germany, the only English I heard was when the people in the car with me started singing, “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”. Sure, I generally had a good time, but I was completely dependent on my host friend, and I’ll never forget how helpless that felt.
The movie opens with a mother driving her teenage daughter down an empty road at night. Their arguing is interrupted when a figure appears in the middle of the street, forcing the mother to swerve and hit a tree, effectively disabling the car. You can guess what happens, but please pay attention to what you hear. The sound designer did a phenomenal job in setting up our scares—some of the scenes are as hollow as a conch shell. In the woods surrounding the broken-down vehicle, we pick up the sound of every falling leaf, we wait to hear the footstep of the someone we know is out there.
The day after the mother and daughter disappear in the forest, we’re introduced to our heroine Clementine, a teacher who is leaving work. As she drives through dying sunlight from school to her house in a remote location, we’re treated to clever title credits. What I love about these shots is that Moreau and Palud are stripping away her safety nets. She breezes through crowded city streets and then urban housing and then small neighborhoods and then a town and then woods. By the time she drives past the mother and daughter’s car getting towed on the side of the road, the title sequence is over and Clementine is pulling into the long driveway of her house only a stone’s throw away. Moreau and Palud show this restraint in the rest of the film where we have to pay attention or we might miss a figure in the corner.
Clementine’s maze of a house is pre-war bourgeois chic, complete with tattered wallpaper, antiques, and modern appliances in the kitchen. Her and Lucas have made a comfortable home together, but as day turns to night, they start to realize the pranks being pulled on them (the stolen car, loud music in the woods) are deadly serious, especially when the phone lines are cut. My issue with Them lies in character development. All we know about Clementine and Lucas is that they’re attractive and nice and seem to be happy with one another. Most of what we learn about these characters comes from scenes where they’re trying to survive this attack—Clementine proves to be resourceful and determined, so we eventually become invested in her escape.
Maybe the identity of the villain will surprise you, maybe it won’t. What matters is that you’re disturbed after you find out who it is. Movie killers with thin motivations are usually a liability, but in this case it gives goosebumps, especially considering this was based on a supposed true story. If you do check out Them, turn the volume up and keep the lights on.
GENRES: Atmospheric, Feminist-Friendly, Serial Killer
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