Ils (Them) (2006)

Buy Them [2006]
from Amazon

No story, no character, just one vision – create the scariest film ever. Although Them falls short of that lofty ambition, it is a shining example of how an old-school approach to a thoroughly modernised genre can be effective without breaking new ground.

A French couple live happily in Bucharest, in a big house in the middle of the woods, miles from anywhere. To punish them for this hubris, they start to hear strange noises in the night, their car is mysteriously moved, there’s banging on the doors and, eventually, the home invasion begins.

The veil of terror that descends is never lifted, largely because of the utilitarian way the film is shot and because, incredibly, it’s based on a true story. There is, of course, the inevitable twist, which lends a creepiness and troubling after-taste that lifts Them above other formula-led efforts.