Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise. They're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night.
Them (Ils) is a lean, efficient French-Romanian home invasion thriller that strips horror to its barest essentials. The plot is deliberately minimal — little setup, pure escalation — which keeps tension high but narrative depth low. Acting is solid and naturalistic from the two leads. Cinematography is competent and effective, using darkness and tight spaces well without being particularly distinctive. Its novelty lies in its unrelenting pace and 'based on true events' framing, though the home invasion formula was already established. The ending, however, is genuinely disturbing and memorable — the reveal of the assailants' identity lands as a cold, nihilistic gut-punch that elevates the entire film.