From the IMDB (with a few spelling corrections but not grammatical ones!): "Somewhere in Romania; Clementine is finishing off her day of teaching the local kids French, on her way home she spots an abandoned vehicle beside the road. She continues on unaware of what occurred to its occupants a mother and her teenage daughter the night before. Not that it matters as tonight she'll find out first hand along with her writer beau Lucas, as they're awoken during the night by strange phonecalls and the TV downstairs being turned on, but this is only beginning of their nightmarish night of terror as the phone lines go dead; the power goes out, their car goes missing as they're stalked and set upon by THEM!"
Yes, it's a French thriller supposedly based on a true story set in Romania... and it's a good one. I wasn't expecting much from a film with a slightly predictable plot and a running time of only 77 minutes but I got a nice surprise.
The first ten minutes were by far the best and could easily stand alone as a short. It reminded me a bit of the ending of "A ma soeur" but without the sexual nastiness. I found the Romanian language quite intriguing too. You don't often hear a lot of Romanian spoken in horror films (in spite of the location of Transylvania) and, as another romance language, I found it quite easy to understand without subtitles (though of course I still had the subtitles on). It's sort of like French in structure but the words are pronounced differently if that makes any sense. Obviously that's why the main character later is supposed to be a French language teacher. ;o) Well, it wouldn't make a lot of sense for a French actress to play an English teacher in a Romanian school, would it?
The rest is pretty formulaic but is shot and acted exceptionally well. Olivia Bonamy (Clementine) is great to look at and, after a short (15 minute) break following the first murders to build up some sympathetic characterisation, the action is real edge-of-your-seat stuff which doesn't let up until the end. The suspense is mostly created by the reactions of the two main characters to various bumps and noises as their house is invaded. Until the final 10 minutes you don't really see or find out who the "them" are. What makes it worse is that it's all very believable!
Some people have said that "Ils" isn't gory. I don't know what film they were watching but there are lots of blood effects and very realistic woundings. Realism is the key word here. You don't need buckets of fake blood thrown over everything (or a huge budget) to make a scary film anyway. "The Blair Witch Project" proved that years ago. Even if the "true story" isn't, it'll still give you something to think about.
I'm giving it 6.5 out of 10 and it will be going into the Video Vault as soon as I do my next website update. The film does have a few weaknesses, especially in length and denouement, but the overall effect will make you think that you've just watched something with an 8 out of 10 rating if you aren't quite so critical as I happen to be.
From the IMDB (with a few spelling corrections but not grammatical ones!): "Somewhere in Romania; Clementine is finishing off her day of teaching the local kids French, on her way home she spots an abandoned vehicle beside the road. She continues on unaware of what occurred to its occupants a mother and her teenage daughter the night before. Not that it matters as tonight she'll find out first hand along with her writer beau Lucas, as they're awoken during the night by strange phonecalls and the TV downstairs being turned on, but this is only beginning of their nightmarish night of terror as the phone lines go dead; the power goes out, their car goes missing as they're stalked and set upon by THEM!"
