Daily Info, Oxford on Twitter Daily Information, Oxford on Facebook
Place your Ad   List your Event   Site Map   Frequently Asked Questions  My Daily Info
 
Ads Events Reviews Venues Site
Send to a Friend

They [15]

Creatures from the dark


Send to a friend
If you thought that American horror would never be able to recover from the knowing self-parody of films like 'Scream' and 'The Faculty', then you may well be pleasantly surprised by 'They'. It's not funny, it's not postmodern - it's just unremittingly, heartstoppingly terrifying.

After her father's suicide, five-year old Julia Lund (Laura Regan) suffered horrific nightmares, and was sent to a psychiatrist. Now, nineteen years later, Julia is herself an advanced student in psychology; but after she witnesses the suicide of a close friend (who also suffered night terrors as a child), Julia's nightmares return with renewed ferocity. Her former psychiatrist diagnoses Julia's condition as 'post-traumatic stress' and 'paranoid schizophrenic delusions', but Julia becomes convinced that she is being pursued by rapacious, light-fearing creatures from another world...

'They' reduces us all to quivering children, terrified of the dark. It features a series of carefully manipulated set-pieces that will have your pulse racing, your hairs standing on end, and your body leaping out of its skin; and it ends with an image so numbingly claustrophobic, and so darkly irrational, that it will remain with you long after the film is over.

Director Robert Harmon clearly understands that what is unseen and unknown can be far scarier than what is fully realised on screen. The presence of the creatures that haunt Julia is felt throughout the film, but they remain shadowy figures, merely half-glimpsed and constantly in motion, inhabiting only the dark recesses which evade celluloid's visual grasp. Rarely have creature modelling and computer generated imaging been used with such effective restraint.

Recently in 'Halloween Resurrection' Jamie Lee Curtis' character was killed off for good, but with Laura Regan, who looks like Curtis' elfin daughter, there's a new scream queen in town. She was great earlier this year in 'My Little Eye', and in 'They' she is thoroughly convincing in her portrayal of Julia's frightened breakdown.

Essential horror viewing, but make sure you leave before the credits finish rolling. They come for you when it's dark.

Anton Bitel (Unverified), 06/11/02


Latest Cinema reviews

Man On A Ledge [12A]: A very silly film which fails to make you care about the main character. Spent most...read more

Carnage [15]: It's watchable but somehow unsatisfactory. I kept thinking of Who's Afraid of Virginia...read more

The Descendants [15]: Oh dear! If you can stay awake, there are a few interesting takes on how a "family"...read more

The Artist [PG]: For my part, it was a waste of an evening. The protagonists whilst very good looking,...read more

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy [15]: Serpentine and silvery-grey, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a snake of a movie. Cold,...read more

Review of the Day

Man On A Ledge [12A]: A very silly film which fails to make you care about the main character. Spent most...read more


Ads by Daily Info:

OEA Tutorials offer small group English Language Courses

Browse ads by tag:

university (23) carers (6) mamas (11) well (7) few (5)

Advertise here...

Please fill in the boxes and then click "Send Review" to submit your review for They [15].

Type or paste the text of your review (10 - 300 words) in here:

If you want to link your review to your user account then log in (don't worry, your review text will still be here when you come back).

Don't have a Daily Info account? Get one here! (save your review text first!)

If you don't want a Daily Info account, we'll need the following details:

Your nickname (which you would like others to see under your review):

Contact Details
These are for Daily Info staff use only - we might want to contact you if, for example, we want to add you to our official reviewer's list (free tickets! Click here for more info).
Your name
and email
and/or phone number


Reload Image

Please enter the characters from the above image
(so we know you are human).

Case does not matter:

Terms and Conditions. Go on, do read them, it'll be nice.