Ellos

While preparing for the examination of her Master Degree in Psychology, Julia Lund (Laura Regan) is called by her friend from childhood Billy Parks (Jo Abrahams) to meet him in a bar. They both had nightmares when they were children, and Billy is totally disturbed with demons from the dark that would be chasing him and commits suicide in front of Julia. The traumatic experience, plus the meeting with two friends of Billy, Sam Burnside (Ethan Embry) and his girlfriend Terry Alba (Dagmara Dominczyk), in the funeral make Julia having nightmares again. When Sam tells her that they four have been tagged in their childhood, and demons are coming to get them to the darkness, Julia becomes afraid of the dark and asks for help to her boyfriend Paul Loomis (Marc Blucas).

"They" is a promising good movie that fails in the conclusion, which is not satisfactory. This movie is not totally bad, but I prefer "Fear of the Dark" (2002), which explores the same theme using the psychological factor of the common fear of the dark that children might have. The option in "They" of making the demons real, with reasonable special effects, is sillier, unexplained and not so scary. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Habitantes da Escuridão" ("Inhabitants of the Darkness")

THEY are our childhood fears haunting our adult lives. THEY shun the light, living only in shadow. THEY've marked their victims as children, returning years later to claim them.

One big complaint about this movie is the darkness. No, not the atmosphere, the actual darkness that makes many scenes difficult to see. Sorry, squinting won't help.

RECOMENDATION TO VIEWERS: Watch this movie in a dark room with the video brightness set at 100%. Then, you might be able to make out what's happening, especially in the scenes containing the monsters. Having watched it this way, it was more visible and enjoyable. However, you may need sunglasses for the brighter sequences...

Nineteen years ago, young Billy Parks was taken by a mysterious force in his bedroom. In the present, Julia Lund (Laura Regan) is working towards her masters degree in psychology. Paul Loomis (Marc Blucas) is her boyfriend. She meets childhood friend Billy who claims that they were marked as children and warns her about the dark. He then shoots himself in front of her.

This thing is devastatingly slow. There is no tension whatsoever. The story is stripped down to basically nothing. It doesn't maintain any creepiness. As a horror, there is nothing to be afraid of in this. The jump scares are really telegraphed. Laura Regan screams but that's all. The "Wes Craven presents" is the first warning. Essentially, it means that Wes collected a paycheck but otherwise has little to do with the filmmaking.

Having suffered from night terrors since age 3, that progressed to night terrors with sleep walking by 5, I was thoroughly creeped out by the story line and since I still have night terrors on a regular basis I thought the idea that your marked was very interesting and a scary thought. Decent horror flick, not a blood fest, but the kind of movie that gives you the willies, especially if your afraid of the dark and suffer from night terrors. Worth a watch! ;)

They isn't a horror film for fans of horror who like gratitious gore and is more of a plot-thought provoking film where if you ever did suffer from the mental disorder known as Night Terrors as i did as a young child then this movie will strike a chord within you and leave chills running up and down your spine. If you never had horrific nightmares as a kid then it probably won't do much for you as the acting really isn't that great and I really didn't feel that sympathetic towards any of the adult charachters once They got them. They afterwards spooked the living crap out of me as for several weeks now I've had to close my closet door before i go to sleep as I have visions of the very well executed They monsters in the back of my mind.Definatley rent the DVD as the alternate ending offers more of an explanation as to what They is but it also takes away from the horror movie aspect of the film and makes it a film in just psychlogical terror instead. *** out of *****