They Remain

I read a review somewhere online that called They Remain sort of like Annihilation but with a cult. I guess that's sort of true. The basic plot is that two scientists have been sent into a forest wilderness to investigate strange animal behavior. Their area of interest also happens to be where a large cult had recently conducted its rituals (including torture and murder). But as the scientists spend more time in isolation, they become more paranoid of each other and of their surroundings. Is it something in the air? For me, this movie was pretty inscrutable - and unenjoyable - although at the very end we do get the slightest bit of closure or satisfaction. But until that time, let's just say it's a bumpy and not always interesting road they travel. We see everything through the eyes of only one of the scientists; perhaps dualling perspectives would have helped. I kept wondering when something was going to happen that made some sense, but the movie kept tantalizing me, showing me strange occurrences without any sense of context or import. In addition, there are multiple scenes of hallucinations or dreams, but it's not easy to distinguish them from the "real" scenes. The acting isn't bad, and the photography is beautiful, but the meaning was lost on me.

Two scientists who share a romantic history are tasked with investigating unnatural animal behavior on the site of a Manson Family-style cult's compound.

Laird Barron is the author of several books, including "The Croning", "The Imago Sequence", "Occultation", "The Light Is the Darkness", and "The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All". Despite this impressive list of titles, "They Remain" is the first film to be adapted from Barron's work.

In horror, there is something known as the "slow burn", a film that relies more on building a sense of tension and tone rather than a fast-paced scary, in-your-face gorefest. "They Remain" is definitely going for the slow burn method, though some might doubt whether it has been achieved. The film can fairly be described as "minimalist", and as such viewers may find there is very little actually burning. Does the thin plot pay off in the end?

Because of its screening at a Lovecraft film festival, it seems appropriate to discuss any themes that might be Lovecraftian. And indeed, the idea of there being a connection between geography and madness is very much a Lovecraft-inspired topic. In fact, this may be the most interesting part of the film: is the cult a one-off, or is there something otherworldly that causes such behavior time and time again? And if the latter, what is the cause? Lovecraft dabbled with the ideas of non-Euclidean geometry affecting areas (architecture) and radioactive meteors altering moods. But what does "They Remain" offer?

For the horror fans, there will likely be some disappointment with the average makeup effects, particularly the burn wounds in one scene. In other technical areas, the film excels. The framing, cinematography, score and so on are all top-notch. The acting is excellent, and the two leads successfully take a thin plot and carry the run time's weight.

"They Remain" debuted October 7 at the H. P Lovecraft Film Festival. It should be reaching a wider audience in the near future, presumably by late Fall 2017 via Paladin Films.

They Remain is a lean and mean movie. As a lover of cosmic/weird horror I tend to like stories that bring no easy answers and create scenarios that force the viewer to work a little and play detective. The film stays very true to the original story "30" by Laird Barron and most of the dialogue came straight from the text. Both the novella and the film live in that strange sub genre of small groups of people in remote areas freaking out. Films like "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Long Weekend" come instantly to mind in vibe for me. From the opening scene, there is a decidedly uncomfortable tension between the two characters. And having only an awkward coworker who you don't trust as your sole confident makes for a tense little slice of sci-fi/ horror. The real star of the film is the camera work, there is so much nature in this film, verdant, green and often swallowing up the actors in it. The film makes the mundane hostile, the lush greenery and daylight as oppressive as anything shot at night. The pace of the film is slow and dreamy and the score really helps create a strange un-reality. These scientists go into this assignment not sure what they are researching exactly and in doing so become the experiment. We as viewers are not privy to the corporate higher ups (or ancient evils, or cults, or who knows) that have poisoned this land and we, at the end, are left to decide for ourselves. Is the cult still active? Is the land haunted? Is there an evil giant goat looking for its sex horn? Or something else entirely? Gelatt takes the hard roads on this one, allowing characters to be unlikeable and hard to know and leaving few safe spaces for the wayward viewer. But like The VVITCH and The Blackcoat's Daughter last year and Annihilation this year, there is definitely an appetite in the horror/sci fi community for the stranger and more subtle stories within the genre. And I think They Remain succeeds on that front. Worth the watch and the thoughtfulness afterwards.

There are so many things to like about this movie.

Amazing cinematography and great visuals. The actors are very charismatic and give great performances.

I loved the style and the suspense that the director basicallly built out of nothing.

This would be a great movie for film students to study as everything about it is great except... the plot was terrible.

I have not idea what happened, why it happened or where its going. I understand that so much has been done that movie writers are looking for something new. But going nowhere is not the way to go.

Movies are supposed to be entertaining and ones that leave all questions and no answers are not that, at least for me.

Ponderous, pretentious and emotionally stunted, those are my lasting impressions of They Remain.

Whilst the back story holds together well enough, any promise this film might have had is wasted. This is a ponderously slow burn thriller that's laboriously wanders from vague pretentious symbolic abstraction to abstraction, offering the viewer a visual feast but a contextual famine.

The result is an aimless affair where the key characters are so caught up in the visual symbolism and inexplicable, moody, mono-tonal narrative, that any emotional range, that might have helped build the tension this thriller desperately needs, is lost.

In conclusion, a dissatisfying film, that wants to go somewhere but forgot to ask for directions. 4/10 from me.