We just want to play.
As it was brought to my attention when I reviewed The Strangers a few weeks back, I decided to give 2006's Them a look since it beat that to the punch by two years. A home-invasion horror film fit for a Francophile, Them (or Ils, as it's known in the original French) is about a couple staying in an isolated country house outside Bucharest, Romania, who find themselves under siege one night with no explanation given for why they've been targeted. She is Clémentine (Olivia Bonamy), a relatively new teacher at a French school in town. He is Lucas (Michaël Cohen), a writer who doesn't have to worry about having a day job. And unlike the couple in The Strangers, there's no sign of trouble in their paradise until their phone rings in the middle of the night, after which they're awoken by loud music, their car is stolen, and the power is cut.
From there, co-writers/directors David Moreau & Xavier Palud play the string out in a doggedly straightforward fashion. (For example, as soon as it's established that their dog likes to bark, it's pretty much a given that it will be silenced.) They also hold off on showing Clémentine and Lucas's assailants' faces for as long as possible, leaving the viewer just as in the dark as they are. The most effective sequence in the film, though, is relatively well-lit since it's the one where Clémentine is on the side of the house being renovated and has to duck through a maze of plastic sheeting. Suffice it to say, this doesn't hide her as well as she'd like.