"Them" on Amazon Prime

[nuxvomica]

It's the 1950s and an aspirational Black family from North Carolina suffers a terrible loss and moves to an all-White neighborhood in the East Compton suburb of Los Angeles. The father (Ashley Thomas) is a war veteran and an engineer, the mom (Deborah Ayorinde), a former teacher, the teenage daughter (Shahadi Wright Joseph), smart and pretty, and the younger daughter (Melody Hurd), adorable, but the family's reception at the idyllic neighborhood of pastel ranch houses with perfect lawns is horrifying from the start, largely due to a bitter, neglected housewife (Allison Pill) who is determined to drive them out, along with supernatural forces determined to drive them crazy.

I am of two minds about this series. It is poorly done in many ways yet is so compelling and impressive in others that I think it's worth watching. The cinematography is vibrant, reminiscent of Kubrick's The Shining, and the acting is terrific, as though it were written for actors to show their skills. But the pace is tiresome, the emotions unbalanced. We get very little time to know the characters outside of the scenes of desperation, madness, and violence. At the core of the story is a horrific crime that is teased early on but not revealed until a flashback more than halfway through. That alone is enough to make this a good realistic horror story and the supernatural element seemed gratuitous and annoying until the next-to-last episode, which could stand as a fascinating movie on its own.

Having watched the whole series, I think it suffers from bringing too many dramatic elements together. It's overloaded, overwrought and messy. But the same could be said about race-relations in this country, both in the 1950s and still today. Even the supernatural side of it bears a message and a sense of history. It can be a slog at times to watch, but if you stick to the end, I think it's worthwhile. I noticed that a lot of the Amazon reviews considered the racial atrocities to be over-the-top and "divisive" but as disturbing as they were, I didn't think they were unrealistic. I've heard true stories just as bad and I don't think the filmmakers veered far beyond depicting the capacity of those who can dehumanize their fellow humans so completely.

[Nevilledog]

1. We're on Episode 7

You've done an excellent review.

[nuxvomica]

2. Thanks. You are in the home stretch.

A lot of things will finally make sense, including one character that I thought had a terribly exaggerated accent.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Thank you for that review.

I doubt I'll be watching it myself, but I always appreciate a thoughtful review.

[catchnrelease]

4. Fair review

I finished it last night and am glad I watched it. Interesting mix of supernatural horror and 'realistic' horror--meaning the interactions between the new and old families. I don't think the racial atrocities were over the top. I totally believe things like that happened. What I think was probably exaggerated was having the whole block participating at once. Of course there are mobs, but I think in a neighborhood it would be a lot more subtle.

I lived the first 10 years of my life in So Central LA, 1950-60. I do remember when the first Black family moved onto our street and when my family moved we were the last white family to leave. I don't remember any kind of overt things like in this movie, but there had to be unhappy white people because they all moved away by 1960. I wasn't really old enough to catch on if there were any subtle racial problems going on, I guess. I liked it that my (Catholic) grade school was a real mix of races, cultures etc. The kids I went to school with were Panamanian, German, Portuguese, Mexican, etc.