They Remain

Ponderous, pretentious and emotionally stunted, those are my lasting impressions of They Remain.

Whilst the back story holds together well enough, any promise this film might have had is wasted. This is a ponderously slow burn thriller that's laboriously wanders from vague pretentious symbolic abstraction to abstraction, offering the viewer a visual feast but a contextual famine.

The result is an aimless affair where the key characters are so caught up in the visual symbolism and inexplicable, moody, mono-tonal narrative, that any emotional range, that might have helped build the tension this thriller desperately needs, is lost.

In conclusion, a dissatisfying film, that wants to go somewhere but forgot to ask for directions. 4/10 from me.

Right off the start I have to acknowledge how good William Jackson Harper can act. I hope the best for him, but this film isn't going to make him a household name. But don't waste your time on this movie.

'They Remain' begins with 2 people in the woods studying "unnatural animal behavior" and yet, you're left wondering where that is; There's a german shephard that shows up every now and again. There are insects that interest Rebecca Henderson's character Jessica. There's certainly a lot of "what's that mean" thrown in to make some mystery, but the only real weird behavior is between Keith & Jessica. Jessica starts hearing things early in and then both of them act like they're on drugs near the middle of the film.

To describe this film, I would have to say it's about the lost cult members of the Charles Manson family. Jessica and others in the movie belong to the famous cult and they're trying to induct Keith into the group. As I watched the story unfold I was thinking how Keith should be yelling, "Why are you messing with me?" It's obvious - Why wouldn't anyone ask this question? 'They Remain' attempts to be psychologically unnerving with dream sequences & a 60's vibe effects, but all it really does is bore. Whatever emotion the direction was trying to invoke in the audience is a complete dislike of the story. It laid out visual mysteries and fails to connect any of it to the plot. We're presented with cameras malfunctioning, a cave, a pair of giant ram horns, and ooo scary "THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE WOODS!" You waste your time waiting for the "slow burn" because it just ends without a climax and you never want to watch it again. Really nice set up for good story telling and it fails to deliver a coherent one.

This seems to be an attempt to create intellectual horror, or intellectual dread. There are atmospheric moments, but since the mishmash of story and backstory are ultimately incomprehensible, not in an artistic and interesting way but in the manner of incoherence, the movie is much ado about nothing. If you want an interesting and strangely suspenseful movie which moves along at a similarly deliberate pace, try Phase 4, and excellent understated science-fiction drama/eco-horror. They Remain seems to be trying to achieve something similar, but fails in ho-hum fashion.

Two scientists who share a romantic history are tasked with investigating unnatural animal behavior on the site of a Manson Family-style cult's compound.

Laird Barron is the author of several books, including "The Croning", "The Imago Sequence", "Occultation", "The Light Is the Darkness", and "The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All". Despite this impressive list of titles, "They Remain" is the first film to be adapted from Barron's work.

In horror, there is something known as the "slow burn", a film that relies more on building a sense of tension and tone rather than a fast-paced scary, in-your-face gorefest. "They Remain" is definitely going for the slow burn method, though some might doubt whether it has been achieved. The film can fairly be described as "minimalist", and as such viewers may find there is very little actually burning. Does the thin plot pay off in the end?

Because of its screening at a Lovecraft film festival, it seems appropriate to discuss any themes that might be Lovecraftian. And indeed, the idea of there being a connection between geography and madness is very much a Lovecraft-inspired topic. In fact, this may be the most interesting part of the film: is the cult a one-off, or is there something otherworldly that causes such behavior time and time again? And if the latter, what is the cause? Lovecraft dabbled with the ideas of non-Euclidean geometry affecting areas (architecture) and radioactive meteors altering moods. But what does "They Remain" offer?

For the horror fans, there will likely be some disappointment with the average makeup effects, particularly the burn wounds in one scene. In other technical areas, the film excels. The framing, cinematography, score and so on are all top-notch. The acting is excellent, and the two leads successfully take a thin plot and carry the run time's weight.

"They Remain" debuted October 7 at the H. P Lovecraft Film Festival. It should be reaching a wider audience in the near future, presumably by late Fall 2017 via Paladin Films.

How this has scored so high and many of the reviews I do not know. Slow is not a good enough word for it, it makes me go and find a cult to join and they can put me out of my misery. But seriously I think many of the reviews are influenced by the partaking of huge amounts of spirited fruit juices, then only you are able to make it work. 2 is for the pretty scenery