They (C-)

Bring on the terror. Bring it.

I was poking around on NetFlix when I noticed They listed with the other horror movies. I couldn't remember if I'd seen it before. I put it on and realized that yes, I had seen it before, but I remembered next to nothing about it. I wracked my brain. It was familiar, but completely strange at the same time. Was the fact that I couldn't remember it a good thing, or a bad thing?

They is a film about Julia Lund (Laura Regan), a twenty-something psychology student coming up on graduation. She has an incredibly understanding boyfriend, Paul (Marc Blucas), and they seem to have a good thing going. She also has a childhood friend, Billy Parks (Jon Abrahams), who isn't so hot in the sanity department. Billy and Julia both experienced night terrors as children, and while Julia has moved on with her life into adulthood (or has she?), Billy is still tormented by his childhood memories and the nightmarish reality he experiences on a daily basis.

One evening, after a date with Paul, Julia receives a call from Billy and he begs her to meet him at a diner. She reluctantly agrees, leaving Paul behind so she can tend to her childhood pal's fragile emotional state. When she arrives, Billy blathers on about a number of dark things before ending his own life as Julia watches. This doesn't do much for Julia's mental state, and things begin to get strange for her, too. Unseen creatures begin to skitter in the shadows and she experiences a night terror at Paul's house--the first she's had since she was a little girl.

Paul is the most understanding boyfriend ever. Definitely a keeper.

At Billy's funeral, Julia meets two of his friends/roommates: Sam (Ethan Embry) and Terry (Dagmara Dominczyk). They, too, suffered from night terrors as children, and they both feel something is terribly wrong. Sam has Billy's diary, which he's been combing through for clues, but none of it seems to make any rational sense. Julia rebuffs them initially and denies that she's had any strange experiences, but as her own problems begin to multiply, she seeks Sam and Terry out for help or support. As the plot continues to unravel, we learn that the night terrors Julia, Billy, Sam, and Terry suffered as children have marked them, and one by one they succumb to the shapes in the shadows--the titular "They" of the film.

The ending will either leave you shaking your head or keeping your lights on at night.

The story presented in They isn't terrible, but it felt like there was something missing. The characters, especially those who are dealing with the prospect of shadowy monsters, don't do much to defend themselves. Perhaps they don't know (or remember) the monsters exist. Even so, if sticking your head into an air vent and seeing a scary shape skittering around doesn't get you to pull your head out of said vent, you deserve whatever happens to you.

Terry takes a swim. Bad idea.

The creature effects in They are interesting, but most of them are obviously done with choppy CGI. You rarely get a glimpse of the monsters in direct light, which isn't a bad thing, but when you do see them they don't seem particularly real. I don't necessarily want to have things spoiled by showing off the creatures too soon, but I would've loved to see more of them at appropriate times. The critters in Don't Be Afraid of the Dark were a lot more interesting and effectively scary than the ones we see (or don't see) in They.

There isn't a lot of gore--very little, actually--and most of it is implied. The cinematography isn't terrible, but there's a lot of darkness in the movie that sometimes makes things hard to see. The acting, for what it's worth, is just alright. Sometimes it feels like the cast isn't really into it, and sometimes they're right on the ball.

When all is said and done, They isn't a bad movie, but I can't help but feel it could have been a lot better. Despite Wes Craven's name being attached to the movie, it's far from the quality of many of his classics. There are some scares, certainly, but I didn't get as creeped out by it as I wanted to.