When researching horror movies to watch there’s a wide assortment to pick from, and some folks might take a very wide approach when it comes to which horror movies they watch, be they cerebral, visceral, or something entirely obscure. There are so many horror movies out there that picking a certain style can be a little tough since it’s a matter of personal taste. But They Live in the Grey is one of those that manage to move at a pace that’s tough to take at first, but is still enticing enough that it keeps a person willing to watch. Something about watching a caseworker attempting to help a family in need and finding that something is going on is the type of story that many people tend to get into, but once it starts heading into the supernatural it becomes a little less convincing since the ghost story aspect of the movie does kind of give a feeling that the special effects budget might not have been all that great. On top of that point, one can’t help but feel that despite the desire to make a movie that might scare the hell out of people, this comes off as more of a Lifetime channel attempt at horror, meaning there’s something deeper to it, but that the horror is muted in a big way.
It’s tough to say this with a lot of conviction since there’s a good story here, but it gets buried in the ideas that blanket it since the use of CPS as an element of the story brings in a very human presence that is meant to bolster the movie but ends up making things a little disjointed, even if it leads into the main point of the story. Claire Yang is a CPS employee that is called out to a family to ascertain that the injuries exhibited by a young girl are in fact ‘accidents’ as they’ve been claimed to be. What she finds after her examination is that there appears to be a supernatural entity in the house, the same entity that appeared to her after her son died, a woman that continues to plague her as she and her husband are currently experiencing a great number of problems.
However, the more time she spends with the family, the worse things continue to get as the spirit continues to plague Claire. The young girls she was sent to check on continues to show signs of harm, and while she’s uncertain of how it’s happening, Claire feels her life turning upside down as she continues to dig deeper into the matter, finding that things are only getting worse until she’s finally confronted by the entity, which shows her the truth of what happened by showing her the entire vision that she’s been seeing pieces of for so long. This also brings to mind what has been happening in the household she’s been investigating, and as a result, it’s revealed that the mother has been abusing the daughter to punish her husband. The ultimate reasoning behind it is that she never wanted to be a mother, and feels that she was robbed of having a life
In an interesting twist, the ghost that has been with Claire for so long manipulates the woman and ends up killing her. After this, things begin to get better for Claire and her husband, and the young girl is presumed to be safe. Claire takes on other clients as she seeks to help them with their own supernatural issues. Using her sensitivity to the supernatural currents, Claire is seen to channel the supernatural forces to help others, indicating that she has come to terms with the otherworldly forces that have affected her life. The movie is one of those that’s enjoyable enough when thinking about how it’s laid out, but the feeling that it’s not quite as effective as a regular horror movie is easy to echo since it doesn’t have the same kind of punch that many horror movies tend to have, meaning that it doesn’t reach out and grab a person, but rather tries to lure them in with a halfhearted attempt at showing something jarring and disturbing but never really ventures too far from the tortured mindscape of the main protagonist.
In this manner, it is fair to state that some folks might be more than a little unnerved since psychological thrillers are often enough for some folks, while they’re a bit tame for others. This particular type of movie could have been a little more convincing had it been written in a more convincing style. But overall it’s not the worst horror movie out there, even if it’s not something that many people would see as enticing enough to stick with. It’s a good movie to watch when you need something light, but otherwise, it’s one of those that’s a curiosity and not much more.
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