Them

First-time directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud have crafted a highly effective horror film that combines a plausible narrative with accomplished use of sound and image.

Moreau and Palud play on the way our minds fill in the gaps of the unknown and the very primal fear of things going bump in the night.

A nerve-wracking finale, a 30-minute chase through the house's catacombs, followed by a closing image that will chill you to the bone.

Those who like their horror served up neat, no chaser, can safely belly up to Them. It is a pared-down French thriller that trades splatter and gore for tense efficiency.

Them is Haneke on training wheels.

The fright is crafted well enough, but the twist at the end calls for more originality than filmmakers David Moreau and Xavier Palud wield.

Lean, mean and will leave your underpants anything but clean.

...a sporadically affecting yet undeniably uneven exercise in horror.

A disturbing DV-shot horror thriller.

Mostly an exercise in frustration.

Definitely one of the best horror films I've seen in a while, and plays to the key of terror and our imagination provoking enough imagery without the director having to do much of anything...

You can always expect a little embellishment for any horror film or thriller that claims to be based on a true story or actual events. This one, however, doesn't sell it.