CATCH THEM IF YOU CAN
It’s difficult to adequately classify Them, the debut from French directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud which has been a recent sensation on the film festival circuit. It will probably be labeled a horror movie, but it is so much smarter, tighter and more intense than the vast majority of other genre offerings.
Moreau and Palud set out to tell the story of a young teacher and her boyfriend being terrorized by a person (or is it people?) in a large, isolated mansion just outside Bucharest with a minimum of frills. They dispense with the usual manipulative orchestral score found in every other chiller, and opt for simple visuals with no special effects rather than showy, CGI-laden cinematography. The film’s dark, sometimes grainy look and handheld photography recall The Blair Witch Project, a parallel which is even more apt because of the film’s claim that it is based on real-life events. From its attention-grabbing opening sequence onwards, Moreau and Palud stay in complete control of the action — and their audience’s pulse rates — all the way to the film’s perfectly-pitched climax.
On the strength of the raw talent they displayed in Them, the Gallic pair were signed up by Lionsgate to remake Danny and Oxide Pang‘s The Eye as a vehicle for Jessica Alba. If you want to see how Moreau and Palud will adapt to Hollywood filmmaking, you’ll have to wait until February 2008, but in the meantime you should definitely try and catch Them. This Thursday, it has a special preview screening at the Lincoln Center, after which it opens in Portland, Oregon and then makes its way around the country (details can be found on the film’s website)
