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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 05/23/2007 : 09:51:26
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This is one of those films I went into cold, assuming it was going to be a remake of the 1954 thinly disguised anti-Soviet classic about irradiated giant ants attacking America.
However, this French chiller about a French couple in Roumania [based on the actual sad tale of an Austrian couple in Czechoslovakia] is powered by no such simplistic quasi-political messages. In fact, it's hardly driven by anything but atmosphere. For that it manages to create a self-contained world that becomes fear itself and any script deconstruction might just about reveal a tale of alienation.
The plot, such as it is and completely unencumbered by any psychological examination, introduces us to an attractive, intelligent couple working in a foreign country - he a writer, she a school teacher. Mind you we meet them only after a pre-title sequence of a mindless murder, but we're soon diverted to want to know more about this particular man and this particular woman.
But, in a coup of minimalist story-telling, that's about all we find out: they're witty, they love each other, and from now on they're plunged into a series of escalating and unexplained horrific incidents.
Director David Moreau - who also co-wrote the script - is ably supported by some deceptively sophisticated camera-work that looks simple but combines with some of the tightest editing I've seen to produce a voyage of fear. Are we in a supernatural tale? Is this the working of the psychotic mind of a mass murderer? The wrap-up, when it comes, instantly makes us realize that clues have been there all along. Clues, not in the expected sense presented in a whodunnit, but glimpses of action which eventually make perfect sense in context. Moreau concentrates on the effect and not the cause; sadly it's not quite enough.
Even at an hour and a quarter, this makes the film too long and it would have worked better as a half-hour short, since there's only so long one can sustain this mono-focus. He may need some screenwriting lessons, but that Moreau can direct, make no mistake. It's a classy piece of work, albeit no classic.
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THEM
