They Wait (2007)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Ernie Barbarash

Writers:

Trevor Markwart (story)
Trevor Markwart (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 April 2009 (Philippines)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

They wait... to ensure the past is not forgotten.

Plot:

A young mother and her six-year-old son come face to face with the mysteries of two murders and a great crime against the Chinese community into which they have recently arrived from Shanghai.

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Funeral | Pharmacist | Murder | Shanghai China

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Jaime King	...	Sarah
Terry Chen	...	Jason
Pei-pei Cheng	...	Aunt Mei (as Cheng Pei Pei)
Henry O	...	Pharmacist
Regan Oey	...	Sam
Colin Foo	...	Raymond
Chang Tseng	...	Xiang
Michael Biehn	...	Blake
Vicky Huang	...	Shen
Donald Fong	...	Ben
Wally Houn	...	Pang
Stephen Chang	...	Funeral Director (as Stephen MD Chang)
Donny James Lucas	...	Sam's Doctor (as Donny Lucas)
Suzanne Bastien	...	Nurse #1
Erika Conway	...	Nurse #2

Also Known As:

30 Jours de terreur (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence/disturbing images.

Runtime:

99 min | Canada:89 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) | USA:R | Australia:MA | Netherlands:16 | UK:15 | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

Gastown, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

TVA Films

Sleeper Hit of Toronto Festival

I caught this at the Toronto Festival like the other reviewer and was very surprised by how entertaining it was. A terrific ghost story. Jaime King puts in a very strong performance and the whole cast is solid. It's been a while since I've witnessed entire audiences jumping in fright and screaming. There is incredible atmosphere in the film and the underlying story is actually quite brilliant in the way it combines multiple cultures, the immigrant experience, Chinese folklore and actual history and fuses it into a genuine crowd-pleasing genre film. Highly original on that front. I'm a pretty well-rounded J-horror freak-boy and I couldn't see any clichés here which was amazing. Great work from director Barbarash as well.

I'm giving it an 8 as it was certainly the cream of the Canadian film crop at the festival (not withstanding Eastern Promises, which is not a Canadian story with Canadian actors). There is an obvious very large audience for it and it's well made. Looking at the IMDb scores, while I write this, there's a couple dozen 1's dragging the score down. How could that be? This is a pretty good film! Is this because Uwe Boll has his name attached as an executive producer? People are rating it with 1's and trashing it on their blogs without even seeing it. Sad. What a shame for the sincere filmmakers behind this quality movie.