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Movie Summary
They (2002), released as Wes Craven Presents: They, is a supernatural horror film directed by Robert Harmon. The story centres on Julia Lund, a graduate psychology student who begins experiencing inexplicable phenomena after a childhood friend resurfaces and warns her that “they” are coming back — the creatures from their shared childhood night terrors. After his death, Julia’s own night terrors return, and she discovers that the entities from her childhood were not imaginary. The creatures exist in darkness and shadow, marking their victims in childhood and returning to claim them as adults.
The film explores the blurred boundary between psychological disturbance and genuine supernatural threat. Julia’s academic training in rational psychology is systematically undermined as the evidence mounts that something beyond clinical explanation is at work. The night terrors function as both a literal mechanism of horror and a metaphor for unresolved childhood trauma that resurfaces in adulthood. The film received mixed critical reception but has maintained a following among viewers interested in how horror can externalise interior psychological states.