Wes Craven Presents: They

PG-13

Released Nov 27, 2002

1h 29m

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

List

39%

57 Reviews

Tomatometer

24%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Julia (Laura Regan), a smart, athletic psychology student is finally starting to get her life together. As a kid she was traumatized by night terrors, but now she is cruising towards a successful career as a psychologist and has a rock solid EMT boyfriend to boot (Marc Blucas). After a friend commits suicide - saying the night terrors have returned - Julia and some of her other friends start to experience the same terrors...

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Critics Consensus

They fails to sustain the level of creepiness necessary to rise above other movies in the horror genre.

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Dallas H

Nope. This movie doesn't have any direct connection to Wes Craven. He doesn't have credit as a writer, director, producer, or even "based upon a story by" attribute. But the marketing team slapped his name all over it. There is nothing new brought to the table with this film. It feels like a re-tread of tropes and plot points we have seen before. It was a hair above terrible and a whisper below mediocrity.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/10/24

Full Review

Charles T

You have probably seen the plot summary a hundred times before, and if you haven't, then you have seen scenes from this film in other films a hundred times before. Julia (Laura Regan) is a master's degree student in psychology. A troubled childhood friend, Billy (Jon Abrahams), contacts her, meets her, rambles incoherently to her, and then shoots himself in front of her. The viewer has already seen Billy, as a young boy, grabbed by monsters in the night, so he probably had some problems even Julia could not help him with. At Billy's funeral, Julia meets Billy's other friends Sam (Ethan Embry) and Terry (Dagmara Dominczyk). The friends have had night terrors as children, and they now bear strange markings on their bodies that seem to say "hey, mysterious computer generated creatures, come and get me!" Julia goes to former childhood psychiatrist Dr. Booth (Jay Brazeau), who does the shrink thing. Julia's boyfriend Paul (Marc Blucas) doesn't really get it all, either. Come to think of it, neither did I. The basic flaw with "They" is the lousy execution of the premise. Childhood monsters coming back for adult victims is a good idea, but the script was given the go-ahead without any explanation as to where the creatures come from, why they mark certain victims, etc. This is huge in a film that is otherwise not very compelling. The cast is fine, acting scared at just the right moment. The instrumental score is terrible, it sounds like incidental music for "The Music Man." Director Harmon's talents are wasted on the screenplay. He needs a script that will not fail his eye. The screenplay borrows from tons of other films like "Jacob's Ladder," "Phantasm," the remake of "The Blob," and "The Sixth Sense," to name a few, and thinks nothing of ripping off the pool scene from "Cat People." Sure, the DVD has the alternate ending, which is a ripoff of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," but that ending was better than the one that made the final cut. The special effect monsters are wisely kept out of view through most of the film, they look like giant bats. They do deliver a few scares, but in context with the mindless script, it is not enough. Eventually, you will figure out that most of the special effects here consist of some grip flicking lights on and off. "They" had a promising director, nice cast, and a low budget. The script is what never should have seen the light of day.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

09/29/23

Full Review

batman A

é simplesmente assustador

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/21/23

Full Review

robert p

If you wish to be scared, then this movie is for you, it's only got one real *getch-ya* but that's pretty late into the movie, thus my rating of *1 & 1/2* stars!

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I love this movie wish they made mor like this

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

steve d

really fails to bring forth any amount of tension.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Robert Harmon

Director

Laura Regan

Julia Lund

Marc Blucas

Paul

Ethan Embry

Sam

Dagmara Domińczyk

Terry

Jon Abrahams

Billy

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Empire Magazine

Rated: 3/5

Dec 30, 2006

Full Review

Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Characters wander into predictably treacherous situations even though they should know better.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 8, 2002

Full Review

Randy Cordova

Arizona Republic

It's certainly entertaining enough and made with great style, but the whole thing feels slightly undercooked.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 6, 2002

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...the movie's mild success is due predominantly to Harmon's stylish visuals and Regan's engaging turn as the sympathetic central character...

Rated: 3/4

Mar 17, 2021

Full Review

Steve Newton

Georgia Straight

How someone who could helm a film as relentlessly creepy and suspenseful as The Hitcher could deliver a dud like They is beyond me.

Rated: 1/5

Feb 8, 2014

Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

The last ten minutes of the film really stuck with me.

Apr 29, 2009

Full Review

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Synopsis

Julia (Laura Regan), a smart, athletic psychology student is finally starting to get her life together. As a kid she was traumatized by night terrors, but now she is cruising towards a successful career as a psychologist and has a rock solid EMT boyfriend to boot (Marc Blucas). After a friend commits suicide - saying the night terrors have returned - Julia and some of her other friends start to experience the same terrors...

Director: Robert Harmon
Producer: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf, David Linde
Screenwriter: Brendan Hood
Production Co: Dimension Films, Radar Pictures, Focus Features
Rating: PG-13 (Sexual Content|Language|Terror|Violence)
Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 27, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $12.7M
Runtime: 1h 29m
Sound Mix: Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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