Them (Ils)

Stars: Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen

Director: David Moreau, Xavier Palud

If you like being scared in the cinema, this could be the one for you. There's not much blood, but lots of creeping around in the dark to make you clutch the sides of your seat.

Romanian woods are obviously places to stay away from, if this and the recent Severance are anything to judge by. Hardly have two women disappeared there after crashing their car, than a teacher (Bonamy) and her partner (Cohen) find themselves under siege at their rural retreat in the middle of the night.

Such lines as 'I'll go downstairs' may make you giggle, but a pursuit through flapping veils of cellophane in which the heroine finds herself trapped is pretty terrifying. And the directors resolutely refuse to show the predators, although it becomes obvious at a fairly early stage that they are at least human.

The resolution is all too appallingly logical, especially as this is reputedly based on real events.

David Quinlan

France/Romania 2005. UK Distributor: Metrodome. Algacolor.
77 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 22 Jan 2007