Wes Craven Presents They

Rating:
Summary: Pass
Review: "Wes Craven Presents They" is a another "what's lurking in the dark" film in which people who suffered from night terrors as children are now being hunted by those same "creatures". This time, however, "they" are going to take them away for good.

The film centers around Julia, a psychology grad student, who receives a phone call from an old friend of hers. While at a diner, her friend Billy explains that "they" are coming to get him and that he's so scared. Unable to understand what he's talking about, Julia tries desperately to make sense of the situation. Unfortunately, "they" scare Billy too much and he decides to kill himself to get away from them. Thus starts Julia's quest to figure out what in the world caused her best childhood friend to take his life.

Having had night terrors as a child as well, Julia meets up with Billy's two friends (who also had night terrors) and discover that "they" get you when you're a child, mark you, and when your mark reappears, "they" come and get you.

Overall the movie isn't very scary, but it has it's suspenseful moments. I was a little disappointed since this is a Wes Craven-produced film. The story is one that has been used many, many times in other horror films, with even less explanation about who or what "they" are. All we know is that "they" are these long-legged spider-like creatures afraid of light who attack you somewhat like the alien in the Alien films. The ending disappointed me and made me think, "After all Julia went through this is how it's going to end?"

I wouldn't suggest this film because it's plot is tired and holey. Try renting one of Wes Craven many other better films if you want a real scare!

Rating:
Summary: WHO ARE THEY?
Review: Childhood fantasies and fears of things that hide in the closet have purveyed in films for years and years. (MONSTERS INC. does a great job in "satirizing" those fears). Wes Craven "presents" this film, and although Harmon did a bang-up job in 1986's "The Hitcher", his aproach in this one is more subtle. It is a moody, often terrifying look at the possibility that there were monsters under the bed and in the closet. And as some other reviewers have mentioned, those "things" never really did have a specific form or content; they just popped out of wherever and hopefully you were lucky enough to wake up and find out you were just dreaming.
Harmon's film is generally well done, with some creepy creatures that jump out and scare you quite effectively. Laura Regan as the heroine, Julia, and Marc Blucas as her studly Paul, don't come up to Streep or Cruise, but they are generally effective. Regan's waifishness and naivete make her fragile character more sympathetic.

The DVD has an alternate ending that would have been effective, too, although the movie's "official" ending is a little more imaginative, if a little bit depressing.
THEY is one of those movies that could stay with a child, or one of those adults who still don't like being in the dark. Let me go turn on my nightlights!!!

Rating:
Summary: The Horror of Reliving Childhood
Review: When you were a child and darkness and the rattling of thunder besieged your world, how did it make you feel? Were you one of those people that could sit in it and find yourself fearless, knowing beyond knowing that there was nothing hiding within the shadows and that Mommy and Daddy God would dispel all forms of hardship? Or were you one of the people that knew something was awry and could perhaps hear something slipping through that silent void, scratching at the boards under your bed, slightly afraid and hopeful that you parent's were right when they said that there was nothing out there? Or perhaps you were one of the even more unlucky ones, hearing the nails of those spectral hands clawing through your closet while you sat huddling underneath the covers, knowing that "they" come for you at night?

And what if that fear wasn't simply something of a childhood trauma playing out, but was something more sinister and far more real? What if those sounds had figures and they came back for you now?

Within "They," the ideas themselves are not original and the process of eliminating the characters is nothing that audiences haven't seen. All fans of the genre have heard these thoughts recycled over and over again, and all of those reprocessed affairs never seem to lead to new revelations on what being afraid truly amounts to.
But the fear that is produced therein is effective nonetheless, not really needing to be something unique to allow one to shiver and fear the dark.

By using a cascade of effects that let the shadows breathe just out of sight, you can see images that aren't quite images as they skulk into the "real world" in search of something that eludes their "reality bound," docile prey. As the movie progresses, those shadows show more and more of what they are, too, and the beasts therein seem like something out the nightmarish Silent Hill 2 while culminating on other plateaus.
As the onlooker, you find yourself sitting at a table with characters who peer into the shadows that you wouldn't want to look into, and you know that something is lurking there and that it is looking back.
Honestly, it is a frightening affair in some places.

Added to that are people that seem like people, with lives that try to mingle in the world of absolutes but that find themselves disassociated as the themes progress. From the initial blows landed, with the shock causing little reality waves to the worlds awash in nightmares, you find yourself watching faces that find themselves thrust into a world where they are, in so many ways, lost and looked at as crazy.
This leads to some moments that are a little odd and disconnected, but that are nonetheless interesting to watch because the disintegration of lives as monstrosities terrorize them is oftentimes beyond the mundane.

The one complaint I would voice is that some people jump into the pool of thought from far left field, leaving you to feel like you've missed something at first. Things do come around and are explained, mind you, but that initial confusion is something that I've never liked breeding in my mind.

Still, if you like your shadows with claws, the darkness with an agenda, and your endings unhappy, then the flaws are easily overlooked. Little kids being taken and marked, disappearing into the night, isn't something you get from a genre that has become infested with "let the little boy go" mentalities too often in this PC world of demise. Here, in those nightmarish alleyways, is something akin to horrific redemption from that fatal movie flaw and it is nice to behold.
If only the shadows bore gore, too.

Rating:
Summary: Ummm, not really
Review: This movie borders between ingenious and really, really bad. The only difference is the way you look at it. That explains why some people really like it and others hate it. I would have to say that I could never tell what Craven was trying to do. On one hand, there is a very psychological, insightful side to the movie. The idea that a fear can be so real disorients the viewer as to what reality actually is for the characters. On the other hand, we have a movie that tries to be scary, but isn't. I would recommend renting this only if you are in the mood to watch a "thinking" movie. If you want to be scared, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Scary and entertaining
Review: I thought of this movie as being a dark, scary flick on the lines of Alien and nightmare on elm street. It managed to keep me interested and scared, however no explanation of any kind is given for the creature,s nature, intents and/or reasoning. Overall: DECENT TO GOOD.

Rating:
Summary: bad
Review: This is such a bad movie, i don't even know why i'm writing a review on it. Although it scared the hell outta me (and believe me i like scary movies), it didn't seem to have a good enough plot. The acting was poor, and who the hell are "They"? Throughout this entire movie i was trying to figure out what it was. I thought it was something between a huge killer spider and/or a jagwar.

I give "They" 2 stars; one for how scary it was, and another because i didn't mind watching it [BUT I DEFINITELY DO NOT WANNA WATCH IT AGAIN!!!]

Rating:
Summary: What were "They" thinking??!!!
Review: Let me start that I cannot give a full review on this film. This is due to the fact that my wife and I could not finish watching this revulsion. We got through the "swimming pool" scene and got scared witless so we had to turn it off...NOT!!! In our ten years together, this is only the second time we felt we had to stop watching a dumb movie (I don't recall the other). I don't need an answer on what "they" were, typically not having an answer to what a "creature" is, is best. It is the rest of the movie I have a problem with. I have nothing new to say that someone hasn't already said (acting, plot, cliches...) other than this is probably the crappyiest movie I've seen in a long time. I normally give very little creedence to the reviews that almost all dvds have on their cases, but this time (there was nothing else to rent at the video store) the ABC-TV review caught my eye... "Terrifying...don't see it alone!" Could this be a misprint? Maybe a mistake at the dvd factory??!! It's no wonder they can't put anything on television that I can stomach anymore. When the networks have taste like this it doesn't surprise me. Don't waste your time with this film (don't even rent it!!). Quit your dayjob Wes.

Rating:
Summary: THEM.
Review: If this film was reworked and refitted with the 'alternate ending' on the disc I might give it three and a half stars. Great atmosphere and some decent tension elevate this spooker about THEY. However, they (the filmmakers) never really clue the viewer into who THEY (THEY) really are; except in the psuedo-clever alt. ending. Too bad really, with its decent prodution values this flick could've been a lot cooler with some script tweaking and sturdier direction. A standard issue shocker that ends up going nowhere special, THEY (the movie) is merely okay.

Rating:
Summary: One notch better than expected, but I expected Crap!
Review: I'd give it one star, but the ending was pretty cool - both the original and the alternate ending. I agree with some of the others that the alternate ending would have made it a little more interesting - kind of a "was it real or not?" ending - versus the "Yes, it WAS real." Though like I said, the original ending is pretty cool too.

Problem with the movie is everything leading up TO the ending. The lead actress is the most boring I've ever endured. Good horror films need STRONG female leads! She's simply there.

The "off-the-characters-one-at-a-time" proceedings are routine and mundane - eliciting more sighs than screams. The effects are good - the sound is good. There are some good "cheap" jumps - but still pretty [poor] overall.

Worst of all - this is NOT a Wes Craven film. This is one of those "We're pasting on the name of some famous guy so people will think he was involved" kind of things. His name is in the title, but he neither wrote, nor produced, nor directed. As far as I can tell, he had nothing to do with it but to allow his name to be put in the title (that he would attach his name to this at all is an insult to his own standard of judgment).

If you want something SCARRIER than this - rent and ELMO movie or something - not this dreck!

Rating:
Summary: An Very Intriguing Movie
Review: I enjoy horror movies simply because I dont (most of the time) have to go to a deeper level of mental energy to enjoy them. Say, Jason for example...hacks and slashes "joes" and "janes" around the camp fire. Or Leatherface...wears skin and runs around with a chainsaw...that hacks and slashes "joes" and "janes"...

I guess I have to say most horror movies have a comical sense that Gahan Wilson fans would enjoy and understand.

They...is a good movie I have to say. One that I actually took the time on several mental levels (extremely rare with movies of this day and age) to study it. I see a lot of people fussing because there is never an answer as to what and who "they" are. Well isn't that the point? Wes Craven's movie is almost Lovecraftian simply because you can't really "name" the monsters. These monsters are not Jason or Freddy or even the goofy ones in Scream. Instead, these are fears, transformed into an almost physical body, that not only is out to get you, but darn well feast upon your wholeness. They have no specific body, though you sometimes see hints and allegations of them, they really have no face or personality...except the personality to eat you up.

Such fears go back not just to your younger days, but to those times when you were a young boy or girl, needing badly the nightlight of Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny so that you can sleep peacefully. Yet when that light bulb burns out. You know and I know that "they", or so in the mind of a child, come out. Of course they really never got us...but I would hypothesize that these creatures were our first realization that there was a darker more sinister aspect of reality, not really hell, but an underworld where there were monsters and gnashing of teeth.

If you truly watch They you will realize that Wes Craven is not really wanting to give you the next Freddy or Jason or Leatherface. He wants you to face your darkest memories of childhood, and see what would happen if your childhood fears took on a Twilight Zone role.