Dimension
Home Video | Review by Dan Taylor
I
normally steer clear of the "Wes Craven
Presents" titles at my local video
store. Let's face it, his name above the
title hasn't exactly been synonymous with
"quality" cinema over the last
few years. Stinkers like WISHMASTER
and DRACULA 2000 seemed to serve as nothing
more than excuses to kickstart new straight-to-video
lines and provide work for the likes of
Roy Schieder and Rutger Hauer.
So I was more than a bit surprised
to find that THEY – which zipped into
and out of theaters last year – was
directed by Robert Harmon, who helmed the
creepy killer-on-the-road epic THE HITCHER
starring Hauer and C. Thomas Howell. Though
Harmon never seemed to live up to the promise
of that outing, trailers for his new flick
HIGHWAYMEN suggest a blend of MAD MAX and
DUEL, and THEY had received endorsements
from some trusted cinematic advisors. What
did I have to lose other than another 90
minutes?
Opening in the midst of a
spooky rainstorm, a terrified kid experiences
what doctors diagnose as "night terrors."
Of course, this doesn't explain how –
or why – young Billy gets pulled under
his bed, but it does help us understand
why he's a paranoid, crazoid mess when we
meet up with him 19 years later. Like one
of those guys you see on city streets, Billy
rambles on and on about how "they"
don't like the light and how "they"
are using the electrical outages to come
for people. Including him.
Billy's not so unexpected
demise brings together a trio of people
who experienced similar night terrors in
their youth. Pretty soon, they're sharing
memories, talking about weird visions and
asking some poignant questions. Was Billy
just another paranoid schizophrenic? Are
"they" real? And more important,
what are those itchy sores??
For the first two-thirds of
its running time, THEY is slow and talky,
putting us through the paces of the relationship
between freaked out Julia (Laura Regan)
and her meathead boyfriend who shares an
apartment with two slackers. We get a couple
scenes of weird visions – including
one suitably effective moment in a bathroom
– but it's all a bunch of "Hey,
is anybody out there?" sort of moody
horror.
And then "they"
start coming and THEY kicks into high gear.
I soon forgot the slow and uninvolving first
hour and found myself riveted as Julia discovers
the source for her terrors – and those
itchy sores. Sure, it reminded me of flicks
like PITCH BLACK and the recent DARKNESS
FALLS, but the relentless last third and
satisfying ending make me willing to grudgingly
recommend it.
One note... the picture on
the DVD that I rented shifted from crisp
and clean to dark with over-saturated colors.
I don't know if this was an overall problem
with this title, but it was a little headache-inducing.
