''They Wait'' is a 2007 Canadian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by Ernie Barbarash. It stars

Jaime King Jaime Barbara King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model best known for her roles in TV series '' Hart of Dixie'' (2011–2015) and ''Black Summer'' (2019–2021), and films such as ''Pearl Harbor'' (2001), ''Slackers'' (200 ...

as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of Ghost Month. The other leading star is Chinese Canadian actor Terry Chen, who plays her husband. It was both filmed, and set, in the city of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and was featured at the 2007

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

Plot

Married couple Sarah (

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

) and Jason ( Chen), and son Sammy (Oey), travel to

for the funeral of Uncle Raymond (Foo). During this time, Sammy begins to see ghosts and falls gravely ill, his illness coinciding with the Chinese festival of Ghost Month. After traditional western medicine fails to help Sammy, Sarah turns to a mysterious pharmacist who tells her that her son is held in a death grip by a living corpse. Sarah now must find what the spirits want before the last day of Ghost Month, or Sammy will be lost forever.

Cast

* Terry Chen as Jason *

as Sarah *Regan Oey as Sammy * Cheng Pei-pei as Aunt Mei * Henry O as Pharmacist *Colin Foo as Raymond *Chang Tseng as Xiang * Vicky Huang as Shen *

Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in ''The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens (film), Aliens'' (1 ...

as Blake *Donald Fong as Ben *Wally Houn as Pang *Stephen M.D. Chang as Funeral Director * Donny Lucas as Sam's Doctor *Suzanne Bastien as Nurse #1 *Erika Conway as Nurse #2 *Grace Fatkin as Receptionist *

Joseph May Joseph May is a British-born Canadian actor, who has appeared in television and film. He is best known for his role as Adam Moseby in '' Bugs'', Andy Button in the television series ''Episodes'', Paul who was the boyfriend of Sam Colloby, in '' ...

as Paramedic *

Yee Jee Tso Yee Jee Tso (born March 10, 1975, in Hong Kong) is a Canadians, Canadian actor. Tso and his family emigrated to Canada when he was six months old. He grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood and booked his first role at age 15. His tele ...

as Pharmacy Store Clerk *Paul Wu as Young Raymond *Maggie Ma as Young Mei *Nelson Wong as Young Ben * Vincent Tong as Young Xiang *Igor Ingelsman as Worker

Production

''They Wait'' was filmed on location in Vancouver in March 2007. The cities involved in filming were Gastown, Vancouver and Victoria, all are situated in British Columbia, Canada.

Reception

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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on , with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 5.8/10. Joe Leydon of '' Variety'' wrote that "Director Ernie Barbarash makes judicious use of CGI trickery -- in one key scene, he cleverly shocks his audience into laughing -- but at heart, he's an old-school traditionalist when it comes to scary stuff." The ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'' and ReelFilm both panned the film, with ReelFilm's David Nusair saying that ''They Wait'' is "...a tedious and downright silly piece of work."

References

External links

* * *
They Wait
' at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival * {{Ernie Barbarash 2007 films Canadian supernatural horror films Films set in Vancouver Films shot in Vancouver 2007 horror films Brightlight Pictures films Films directed by Ernie Barbarash English-language Canadian films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian films English-language horror films