Claiming to be “based on real events” (which means it absolutely is not), Them follows a French couple (Olivia Bonamy and Michaël Cohen) in a country house in Romania, whose romantic meal is rudely interrupted by home invaders.

Not to be confused with 1954 giant ant attack movie Them!, this 2006 French-Romanian horror flick is antsy in a different way. Set over one night, Them (Ils) sees the couple attacked by unseen assailants for a jittery and (relatively) restrained 74 minutes. Presumably the producers of The Strangers saw this and decided it would be better if you saw the attackers. And one of them had a stupid bag on his head.

Writer/directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud strip back the story and crank up the tension through natural sound and lighting that makes the darkest scenes look black-and-white, invoking Night of the Living Dead. Often associated with the New French Extremity movement, or compared to The Blair Witch Project, its single night’s pursuit and pseudo-social commentary make it closer to being a French Creep – as in the 2004 British horror movie, not like Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Sadly this exercise in terror falls apart at the reveal, which undoes the film’s realism and renders the preceding scares ridiculous. On a generous reading it could be commenting on xenophobia against Eastern Europeans, hence the loaded title and bougie French protagonists, whose brief establishing scenes don’t exactly endear us to them. But the film is so underdeveloped that it comes across as pretentious and mean-spirited, without the extremity needed to overlook its flaws.

In the end this is an impressive exercise in restraint and horror technique, let down by a reveal so silly it might as well have been giant ants.