Review of They (2002) by Filipeneto — 09 Jun 2020

This film is another mild horror film that never wants to be more than that and never strives for more. Its greatest merit comes from making an effort to deal with the public's childhood fears. It is meritorious, in that it takes advantage of an interesting idea to make a horror film, but it fails in the attempt to scare us.

The script is based on the existence of something that, under cover of darkness, torments children in their room at night. Years later, as an adult, Júlia Lund meets a childhood friend who kills himself in front of her, allegedly to get rid of the creatures that torment him. That is, the film has potential, but it is lost as it becomes more complex. The monsters are so obvious and poorly made that they never scare, and from the moment the audience understands the story, the film has little more to give: the ending becomes obvious and the film ends up becoming slow, tiring and uninteresting with the progress of the film.

The cast is average and does not do more than expected. The highlight naturally goes to the beautiful Laura Regan, the protagonist, who was able to capture the public's sympathy despite sometimes sounding exaggerated. Wes Craven is notoriously mentioned in the introduction but I don't see what he could have done to improve the film other than simply to allow to put his name there in exchange for a handful of dollars. Robert Harmon does an average job in the director's chair, looking satisfied with a film that never impresses. At a more technical level, the film is as warm as everything else: the scares are predictable and not frightening, the design of the monsters is good enough if we take into account that we never see them well, the special, visual and sound effects are decent.