They (2002 Film)
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''They'' (also known as ''Wes Craven Presents: They'') is a 2002 American
supernatural horror film Supernatural horror film is a film genre that combines aspects of supernatural film and horror film. Supernatural occurrences in such films often include ghosts and demons, and many supernatural horror films have elements of religion. Common them ...
, directed by
Robert Harmon Robert Harmon (born 1953) is an American film and television director. He is best known for the 1986 horror film '' The Hitcher'', starring Rutger Hauer, as well as for films like ''They'' and '' Nowhere to Run''. His television work is distin ...
and starring Laura Regan,
Ethan Embry Ethan Embry (born June 13, 1978), credited early in his career as Ethan Randall, is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor, starring roles in the films '' Dutch'' (1991), '' All I Want for Christmas'' (1991), and '' A Far Off Pl ...
,
Dagmara Dominczyk Dagmara is a Polish first name. Notable people with the given name include: *Dagmara Domińczyk (born 1976), Polish-American actress and author * Dagmara Grad (born 1990), Polish footballer * Dagmara Handzlik (born 1986), Polish-born Cypriot long ...
,
Jay Brazeau Jay Brazeau is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Sam Fisher in '' Cold Squad'', Harlan in ''Stargate SG-1'' (1998, 2001), and for voicing Uncle Quigley in '' Sabrina: The Animated Series''. He is also known for his role as Bobby in ''D ...
, and
Marc Blucas Marcus Paul Blucas (; born January 11, 1972) is an American actor. Prior to his acting career, he played college basketball with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He had his first starring role as soldier and love interest Riley Finn on the WB su ...
. The plot is centered on a group of four adults experiencing
night terrors Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last long ...
and attempting to deal with the fallout from their prior childhood experiences. The film was produced by
Ted Field Frederick Woodruff "Ted" Field (born June 1, 1953) is an American media mogul, record executive, entrepreneur and film producer. He founded Interscope Communications to develop and produce films in 1982, and produced his first hit, '' Revenge ...
and Tom Engleman;
Wes Craven Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Amongst his Wes Craven filmography, prolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in the Horror film, horror genre, particularly sla ...
served as one of its executive producers and was its presenter. The film was released during the
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
week and received generally negative reviews, though Laura Regan's performance received significant praise. The film was also a
box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...
, grossing only $16.1 million against its $17 million budget.


Plot

In 1983, a boy named Billy Parks has difficulty falling asleep after waking up from a
nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations o ...
. His mother, Mary, assures him that the monster he thinks is in the closet is imaginary. As he tries to fall asleep, a dark apparition emerges from his closet and spirits him away. In 2002, psychology grad student Julia Lund reunites with her childhood friend, a grown Billy. Julia experienced
night terrors Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last long ...
as a child after witnessing her father commit suicide, but has seemingly overcome the problem. Billy, startled by flickering lights in a diner and deathly afraid of the dark, tells her that he believes their night terrors are caused by something otherworldly. As a child, he was kidnapped by mysterious creatures and went missing for two days. He warns her to stay out of the dark, then shoots himself. Julia stays over at her boyfriend Paul's apartment to grieve. That night, Julia hears the shower running and investigates. She finds a black fluid erupting from the sink drain, and the bathroom mirror opens to an alternate dimension filled with mysterious creatures. Paul hears her screams and finds her alone. He suggests she might have been sleepwalking, since she does not remember what happened. At Billy's funeral, Julia meets two of his friends and roommates, Terry and Sam, who also had night terrors as children and have begun to believe his claims. Julia visits Billy's childhood room and discovers a drawer full of batteries. Later, as Julia drives, a creature sprints across the windshield, and the SUV's engine stops. As Julia attempts to restart it, she is startled by a vision of Billy and is nearly hit by a truck. At Terry and Sam's apartment, the trio studies Billy's diary. Terry and Sam ask Julia if she has experienced a return of the night terrors, which she denies. Terry says her night terrors started after she witnessed her sister drown in a lake. In one instance, she disappeared from her bedroom and returned in the dog house; when her father reached in for her, she stabbed him in the eye with a kitchen knife, convinced he was a demon. Julia meets a girl named Sarah, one of Dr. Booth's patients, who claims that "They" will eat her in her nightmares and that the only thing that keeps them away is light. She starts picking at a strange mark on her arm; a similar mark had also appeared on Billy's hand, Sam's shoulder, and Terry's ankle. The creatures soon take Terry and Sam. Julia discovers the mark on her forehead and pulls out a long black needle. She runs to Paul's. Paul, convinced that she is insane, drugs her with a sleeping pill and calls Dr. Booth. Julia runs to the subway and becomes trapped in the station. She boards a train home and is the only passenger. The lights flicker, and the train stops. She gets off and sees all the light bulbs burst in the tunnel. The creatures attack her, but Julia manages to escape. When a group of tunnel workers attempt to help her, Julia assaults them with shards of glass, convinced they are inhuman. Julia is committed to Dr. Booth's mental institution, where she is attacked and transported into the dimension she saw, this time inside a closet. She screams for help from Dr. Booth and an orderly, but neither can see nor hear her. Dr. Booth closes the door, and the creatures drag Julia away.


Cast

* Laura Regan as Julia Lund ** Jessica Amlee as Young Julia *
Marc Blucas Marcus Paul Blucas (; born January 11, 1972) is an American actor. Prior to his acting career, he played college basketball with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He had his first starring role as soldier and love interest Riley Finn on the WB su ...
as Paul Loomis *
Ethan Embry Ethan Embry (born June 13, 1978), credited early in his career as Ethan Randall, is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor, starring roles in the films '' Dutch'' (1991), '' All I Want for Christmas'' (1991), and '' A Far Off Pl ...
as Sam Burnside *
Dagmara Dominczyk Dagmara is a Polish first name. Notable people with the given name include: *Dagmara Domińczyk (born 1976), Polish-American actress and author * Dagmara Grad (born 1990), Polish footballer * Dagmara Handzlik (born 1986), Polish-born Cypriot long ...
as Terry Alba *
Jon Abrahams Jon Avery Abrahams (born October 29, 1977) is an American actor and film director. He is best known for his roles in several films such as Sonny Poncelet in '' Dead Man Walking'' (1995), Bobby Prinze in '' Scary Movie'', Denny Byrnes in '' Meet ...
as Billy Parks **
Alexander Gould Alexander Jerome Gould (born May 4, 1994) is an American acting agent and retired actor. He is best known for voicing the title character of the Pixar animated film ''Finding Nemo'' and for his portrayal of Shane Botwin on the Showtime drama se ...
as Young Billy *
Jay Brazeau Jay Brazeau is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Sam Fisher in '' Cold Squad'', Harlan in ''Stargate SG-1'' (1998, 2001), and for voicing Uncle Quigley in '' Sabrina: The Animated Series''. He is also known for his role as Bobby in ''D ...
as Dr. Booth * Jodelle Micah Ferland as Sarah * Desiree Zurowski as Mary Parks * Mark Hildreth as Troy *
Jonathan Cherry Jonathan Cherry (born December 3, 1978) is a Canadian actor. He made his on-screen debut with a supporting role in the Freeform (TV channel), Fox television film ''Till Dad Do Us Part'' (2001). After a supporting role in the horror film ''They (2 ...
as Darren * Peter LaCroix as David Parks * L. Harvey Gold as Professor Crowley * David Abbott as Professor Adkins


Production

The initial script featured godlike, organic machines who used humans for spare parts. This was rewritten from scratch by the producers. ''They'' was Radar's first film production.


Release

Dimension purchased the distribution rights after footage was shown in England. ''They'' received its US premiere on November 27, 2002. In its opening weekend ''They'' grossed about $5.1 million. The film grossed $12.8 million in the US and $3.3 million overseas, making for a total worldwide gross of $16.1 million.


Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on June 10, 2003. The film received its
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
release on September 11, 2012, through
Echo Bridge Entertainment Echo Bridge Entertainment was an American independent distribution company. It acquired and distributed feature films, scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries, and children's programming for home video, digital and television in the Unit ...
, in a double feature with another Wes Craven film, '' Cursed''.


Deleted scenes

There were scenes that were filmed but excluded from the final cut; the first two are available on the Japanese DVD and include: * After Julia sees Sarah's mark on her arm she leaves Dr. Booth's waiting room with him walking in to find her gone. Julia is seen at a hardware store purchasing lighting supplies afterwards. The cashier asks her if she is going camping but she does not respond. * Julia is seen packing in her bedroom to prepare for Billy's funeral while Paul makes her breakfast. The two then share an intimate moment before she leaves for the funeral. * After Julia pulls out the splinter from her forehead she runs over to Sam's apartment as he is being attacked by "They", after calling out his name a few times more Sam's corpse is thrown through a window and lands on top of her, a monster on his back growls at Julia as it pulls his corpse into the shadows. These deleted scenes were all included in the Blu-ray release of the film.


Alternate endings

Two alternate endings were shot but neither of them made it to the final cut, they include: * After the incident in the subway the film's plot cuts to nine months later where Julia is shown hospitalized in a mental institution. Julia manages to convince a panel of psychiatrists including Dr. Booth that she has regained her sanity. She then sees one of the creatures climb through an air shaft in the ceiling but continues to deny their existence. She is finally released and proceeds to set up high powered lights all over her apartment room. The camera then pulls out of her bedroom as she is seen sitting on her bed. A door creaks open in her darkened hall and the film cuts to black. (This ending was shown to test audiences which was deleted and re-filmed after test audiences responded negatively to the ending; this ending is unavailable in any DVD.) * Julia wakes up in the mental hospital and sees that all the people in her story − Dr. Booth, Sam, Billy, Terry - are patients in the mental hospital and her boyfriend Paul is a doctor working there. The doors to Julia's room then break open and one of "them" enters and seemingly attacks her until it is realized that it was all a delusion fabricated by Julia's mind and she had been suffering from
Schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
throughout the whole movie. (Some versions of the DVD and all Blu-ray versions have this ending available.)


Alternate opening

An alternate opening shown to test audiences featured a flashback of young Julia sleeping instead of a flashback of Billy. This opening was scrapped and is unavailable on any DVD.


Critical response

''They'' holds a 38% approval rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
based on 55 reviews, and an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's consensus states: "''They'' fails to sustain the level of creepiness necessary to rise above other movies in the horror genre." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
the film has a score of 31 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". A. O. Scott of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote of the film: "Though you may share
he characters He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
skepticism about the reality of those nightmare creatures, and occasionally twitch with impatience at the movie's clumsy dialogue and haphazard logic, you may also find yourself thoroughly terrified. I confess I was relieved when the movie ended and the lights came back on." Jamie Russell of the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
awarded the film four out of five stars, writing: "None of it is likely to make this into the year's best horror movie, but as far as scaring the pants off you for an hour and a half, ''They'' will do that. And more."
Peter Bradshaw Peter Nicholas Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire'' magazine. Early life and education Bradshaw was educat ...
of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' wrote that the film "This entertaining scary movie isn't overly burdened with originality, but it's an enjoyable watch with some nicely creepy moments." Writing for the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'', Mick Lasalle wrote: "Perhaps xecutive producerCraven was attracted by the metaphor of monsters and mental illness, but the metaphor is old, and director Robert Harmon does nothing to make it seem new again. Or perhaps Craven was just captivated by the movie's last and best scene, which is spooky enough to make ''They'' almost worth seeing."


See also

*
Shadow person A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure or black mass) is a popular subject in circles of the paranormal and supernatural detailing beings resembling animate human shadows, sometimes interpreted as the presence of a Spirit (supernatural ...
*
Sleep paralysis Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which a person is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis. During an episode, the person may hallucinate (hear, feel, or see things that are not there), wh ...
*
Night terror Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last longe ...
* '' Darkness Falls'', a 2003 horror film with a similar premise to this film


References


External links

* {{Robert Harmon 2002 films 2002 horror films 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2000s monster movies 2000s supernatural horror films American monster movies American supernatural horror films Dimension Films films English-language science fiction horror films Films directed by Robert Harmon Films scored by Elia Cmíral Films about parallel universes Films produced by Scott Kroopf Focus Features films Miramax films