There are basically only three locations in which events take place: the couple’s house, which seems only to be the size and condition it is for horror-friendly effect, the surrounding woods, fittingly grim and seemingly endless, and a third one which I won’t mention for spoiler purposes. I sense it was both as a result of a low budget and intended effect that the locations are limited. With the close-quarters mentality, even in the open woods, the film almost masterfully creates terrific horror sequences seemingly out of thin air. And it’s not as if it’s directed or written by anyone who has years and years of experience; writers and directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud haven’t had really any experience, at least not in the horror genre, but they seem to have been able to conjure a legitimately scary first shot at it.

There are many elements which make Them a fairly original piece of cinema; from its unfamiliar terrorising sequences to its lack of the boresome gore, it seems hell bent on being the exact opposite of a horror cliché. But where it stands apart most is in its resident bad guys. Now I won’t mention them as, again, it would spoil the film but let’s just say it’s not what you would expect from this type of film. You'll think you have it worked out but the reveal is very surprising and I would follow in the footsteps of director Werner Herzog and eat my own shoe if anyone guessed who the bad guys were during the early stages of the film — perhaps an outlandish proposal, but even so, you catch my drift.

Them certainly isn’t the picture-perfect horror film. There are deep-rooted flaws, most worrying being the annoyingly overlong build-up, but I can forgive them in lieu of the heart-pounding sequences that eventually make their appearance. Them might take a bit too long in revealing its hand but once it does it turns out to be only a few cards short of a royal flush.