They is an excellent, very scary movie. And despite having pretty decent production value, great effects, and being very claustrophobic, creepy, suspenseful, having FreakyLinks favorite Ethan Embry, being presented by Wes Craven, and playing in theaters, either no one saw it (or heard of it) or of those that did, they absolutely hated it.
Of course rating systems are botched from the get-go, most people don’t critically think about an appropriate rating and just go straight for the 1-star or 10-star rating (for the full spectrum of like and dislike), there seems to be a trend with some of my most favorite hidden gems of films; they all have really bad ratings and I know they have bad ratings before I even check.
And I’m not a lenient, love-all-movies, happy-go-lucky kind of audience, I’m very harsh about bad writing, cliches, bad acting, bad effects or CGI, poor pacing, bad music, and on and on. I critique a film down to the very font used for credits, I enjoy every layer of a great movie… and the only thing I can find wrong with They is that it follows a common “you have to stay in the light” cliche, but even still, it pulls it off well.
The other possible gripe average Joe movie-goer might have is the predictable “it’s too slow, doesn’t have enough action” attitude, and that’s true, it plays out more elegantly like a great Twilight Zone episode than there being a lot of blood and gore and kills and explosions and nudity.
I highly recommend giving it a chance, you can grab a copy here (I recommend this specific version because it’s currently the only way to get it on Blu-ray, plus comes with another Wes Craven presented movie for only $10) or watch instantly for $3.
If you’ve seen it, when you see it, please drop a line below. Love to hear what you guys think.
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