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I just finished watching this F-Horror and I am interested to hear what anyone else who has seen it thinks.

I thought it was OK, not as good as all the hype made it out to be. Perhaps it would have been scarier on a bigger TV and when I’m alone in the house.

I did like it I just think there was something missing. There was genuine tension and fear for the characters and as is usually the case the ‘based on real events’ tag lends more fear however I just didn’t buy the story.

Can anyone tell me what I was missing or does anyone else feel the same?

I thought it was an okay film but I really was underwhelmed by the experience.  I watched it about a week ago.  I think I’d give it 5 out of 10.  It’s kind of middle of the road fare.  Not great but not terrible. 

To answer your question about watching it alone.  I watched it at 2 am with no one else in the house and it really didn’t frighten me very much.  I did the same thing with the Spanish flick [Rec] and just about pooped my pants.  [Rec] scared the hell out of me.  Ils not so much. 

I am really looking forward to The Strangers and I know everyone is comparing it to Ils.  I hope my expectations aren’t too high. 

The good fellas at Bloody Good Horror reviewed Ils for Episode 27 of their podcast.  You might want to check that out because they give a good analysis of the film and felt pretty much the same way that you and I did. 

http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/podcasts/05/19/2008/episode-27

I’m so glad it’s not just me! I will now have to check out [REC] as obviously I won’t be watching the remake!

When I saw the trailer for the Strangers I imidiatly thought of Them, but having read the IMDb page it seems as though they are both based on a true event.

Been having trouble with the BGH download of late and have only just got around to sitting down and listening to it direct from Podomatic, but thanks for the heads up. In fact I’ve had the movie for ages and watched it so that I could listen to BGH, that’s how much I love the show!

BGH has been having problems with downloads lately.  It’s definitely a problem with Podomatic.  I don’t know what’s happened to Podomatic lately.  It’s just awful. 

I watched Ils so that I could listen to BGH too.  They’re watching Teeth for this week so I’m going to make sure to check it out too.

I thought it was garbage, to be perfectly honest. BGH made it sound far more interesting than it actually was.

Preface - Big empty houses scare me.  You could make a film of someone walking around alone in a huge house with no lights on and I would be freaking out, the entire time.  Basically, the movie had me squirming before anything weird started happening.

That said, Ils scared the PEE out of me.  I’m paranoid and jumpy enough that I could actually see something very much like this happening.  It’s actually one of the reasons I will never own a large house, much less a large house out in the country.

I thought it was a really well-made low budget flick. The fact that it was very tense for the first half hour even though it’s really just a rehash of two people alone at night was impressive.

But the ending(and the reveal of who the “Them” is…letdown, and really calls into question that whole first scene.)

REC is the MUCH better movie.

I have “Them” coming in netflix. Is there another name for REC? I cannot seem to find it.

REC won’t be available until after the US remake is released(the studio bought the rights to make sure it couldn’t).

You can download it from just about any torrent.

I liked ‘Ils’.  I think it was a bit overhyped, but I thought it was a good.  70 minutes of tension.  The makers of the film cut all the fat away and made a pretty good little movie.  Its nowhere near as groundbreaking as some of the reviews I read before I saw it.  But you can definitely see the talent of the filmmakers.  I’d recommend it.  Its no ‘High Tension’ or ‘Inside’, but its definitely worth a viewing.

Also, I just watched ‘Frontiere(s)’ today and that was a little disappointing.  The gore was good and there were some intense moments, but the characters were paperthin, there are a few very slow parts, and the script was a major “homage” to TCM, so much so that there’s even a dinner scene with the crazy family.  Overall, its not bad but not exactly the mindblowing experience I was expecting.

Regardless, I hope the French keep churning out horror flicks, as I think they the only people making any interesting horror flicks these days.

Lucky for me REC is avaliable from August in the UK so I’ll be pre ordering that! 

Does anyone think that adding the ‘Based in true events’ tag helped ramp up the hype for this movie? Also did that add a deeper feeling of fear because something similar actually happened?

i didnt need the based on true events tag.  Home invasions are nothing new and have always scared me.  It’s the main reason the opening scene of Scream was so effective for me.  We normally feel safe and secure in our homes with the doors and windows locked down.  Knowing there might be people out there that are willing to do whatever it takes to crack that security egg is frightening.

I found ILS to be incredibly dull.  Not just a slow burn but sorta a lifeless one.  I think there was maybe one or two scenes that had my attention while the rest was bland.

The reveal of the baddies was the final nail.  I just didn’t like it.