They Live in the Grey is chilling in horror and poetic in its drama, but there are a lot of ideas to comb through.
The loss of a child is easily one of the most emotional centerpieces a film can anchor itself around, as They Live in the Grey opens with an empty field. Then, it switches to Claire Yang (Michelle Krusiec) attempting to hang herself in her home off the upstairs banister. The banister collapses, despite Claire wanting it to end already.
Claire spends her nights sleeping in her closet out of fear, feet away from her master bedroom. She can see dead people – this amusingly makes her Claire the Clairvoyant – and since the loss of her son, it seems to have intensified; their spirits permanent reminders of her past and that she’s lost someone.
Her other reason for living is social work. Her compassion shows in her work, and in Krusiec’s performance. In her latest case, these two worlds collide as she meets the Lang family, home of daughter Sophie (Madelyn Grace), mother Audrey (Ellen Wroe), and father Giles (J.R. Cacia). Sophie’s school is having Child Protective Services look into the case as Sophie always has a scratch on her face.
The parents say every time that she hurt herself skateboarding – for such a weak repeated excuse, we learn later that Sophie does, at least, own a skateboard – but the scratches are the result of a ghost that’s latched itself onto the family. When asked if they could simply move, mother Audrey at least gives a better excuse than the skateboard, saying, “Everything we have is tied into this mortgage.”
A Meditation on Grief
The film is a meditation on grief and getting out of all that all-consuming cycle of grief, wondering if you can change anything but knowing you can’t. Even outside of grief, it’s relatable for other aspects of lives like mourning relationships. This is also partly reflected in the film between Claire and husband Peter (Ken Kirby).
They’re no longer living together but are still married; Claire so consumed by the loss of her son that she’s still not sure how to salvage the relationship with Peter. He’s still fighting, shown with interesting writing where he grasps at anything to talk about when he comes to visit, as he desperately still wants to connect.
That’s reflected in an awkward story about their first date – saying that he tipped the waitress $13 because “that’s all I had,” and went back to tip a few more dollars the next day so their relationship didn’t start out with bad luck, because he thought she was the One.
With a lot of the film, the sentiment is always in the right place with these moments, even if it doesn’t really make sense that he even had to tip $13. You kind-of have to not poke holes into it with this film, and focus on the bigger picture, and that is something the writing/directing team of brothers Abel and Burlee Vang.
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TheRuntime
The directing pair surely put more effort into their drama and chills than they put into naming their characters – Claire who is clairvoyant, as well as the two main last names of the film rhyming with their own – but there are a lot of working parts to the drama. Their drama is reflective and poetic at times, often having beautiful moments. There’s a lot of sentiment, even if, like the cycle of grief going in circles, sometimes the beats in the film go in circles, as well. The film clocks in at 123 minutes and there are
pacing issues, where there’s so much the Vang’s try to put to screen, that it ends up feeling bloated. There are clear scenes that could be left out, especially a small subplot set in the past between Claire and Peter. There are two scenes in the past that work, establishing a song shared between Claire and son Lucas (“My Bonnie”) and a scene showing that Claire was clairvoyant before Lucas’ death, as Claire sees a ghost behind Lucas. But the ones shared directly with husband Peter, like picking out a casket or a scene establishing they can’t communicate, have the sense of Could Be Deleted Scenes.
As transitional scenes, they’re somewhat necessary as the film seems to often shift between the film’s two plots – the A-plot of Claire’s trauma, with the B-plot of Sophie’s case. Sophie’s case might as well be the 1B-plot as it’s so large. The film’s about abuse and the trauma we wear, invisible and visible; but the film mostly focuses on Claire’s trauma. It spends a lot of time on Claire’s story and then we remember we have to catch up with Sophie’s case. Since the film covers too much ground in two hours going between the stories, there’s some disconnect despite many, well-constructed parallels.
The Horror of It All
I’ve only talked about the drama but They Live in the Grey is, of course, a horror film, as well. Say what you will about the drama, but the Vang’s know how to construct some strong horror scenes. They love building atmosphere even if the payoff isn’t always there, like in one scene in a hospital, it likely would have been much creepier hearing crying before seeing a woman creeping in the background.
And, while there are similarities in this film to The Sixth Sense, I think M. Night Shyamalan had a better sense of which ghosts would become iconic. It’s evident the ghosts in They Live in the Grey can’t match that vibe – who can? – but these ghosts must have been so much fun to write in general. That’s very much the case with the one haunting Sophie.
Much like the drama where some scenes feel like they could be taken out, there are arguably some ghosts that could have been left out of the film, but that would be like killing one of their “babies.” There’s probably a lot more to these ghosts’ backgrounds that we don’t know, and probably more ghosts that they wrote than we ever saw. The Vang’s find an impressive variety in location to these ghosts, as well.
Generally, and even though this review has been more middling than anything, the Vang’s showcase some great creepy beats in this film with their horror sensibilities, and the film is worth the attention because of it. As well, Michelle Krusiec’s performance is memorable, as it looks like she’s been through the ringer backing this story, giving it her all portraying the level of grief required.
The story is interesting even if familiar to other haunted house films of this ilk (namely The Conjuring in more than a few ways), but the heart and sentiment they put into their writing is apparent. They just seem excited to get all of this passion across in one narrative. Perhaps that’s why they have so many ghosts in the film and why there’s so much stuff here. I’m just curious what ideas they’ll be using next for their next project.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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About They Live In The Grey
While investigating a child abuse case, a young social worker discovers that a supernatural entity is tormenting the family. To save the parents from losing custody of their child, she must confront her fears and use her clairvoyance to stop the malevolent force. Written and directed by brothers Burlee and Abel Vang (The Tiger’s Child.)
They Live in the Grey stars Michelle Krusiec (Hollywood), Ken Kirby (Good Trouble, Dynasty), Ellen Wroe (For All Mankind, Shameless), Madelyn Grace (Don’t Breathe 2).
They Live in the Grey started streaming on Shudder today, Feb. 17.
