They Remain (2018)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: They Remain

Tagline: Don't Turn Around.

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Director: Philip Gelatt

Cast: William Jackson Harper, Rebecca Henderson

Release: 2018-01-28

Runtime: 102

Plot: Two scientists investigate the root of environmental changes and strange animal behavior at a remote site where a cult committed atrocities. The isolated location, the unraveling of their relationship, and the biome itself begin to lead them down a path of doom where primeval forces threaten to consume them. An adaptation of Laird Barron's short story "–30–".

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I am waiting for this one to arrive as it will be part of my 31 days of terror/October challenge.

 

[TonyD]

Well?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well?

Sorry, Tony. I did not see your reply and I happened to be thinking about this film again and just now stumbled upon your question. I know I wrote something about it I think in the Halloween thread but must have forgotten this thread completely.

I really thought this was a great little picture beautifully thought out and shot. They were obviously working on a small budget but they turn that to their advantage in that they built a nice single set of their lab and living quarters in a forest. They use these cool dome style tents for the structures they live and work in and the forest and the stories they tell of what has gone on over the years on this land provide fantastic atmosphere. They use a small cast, three people, and the interactions and conversations between the two main characters are key to the story. I just point this out because once again this is basically "thinking person's" horror not action/big special effects horror. They actually call it "Cosmic" horror along the lines of Lovecraft where the main thing is more creeping dread and the idea that these people are put in a situation that is completely beyond their understanding nor any abilities they may have to try to deal with it.

Personally, I love this kind of thing but I think for some the lack of action sequences and large effects and general ambiguity because things will not be explained will leave them feeling "What did I just watch and what was that all about?"

This is based on a story by a writer named Laird Barron, I have not read it, but for me I love things like this where they build around strange ideas, mystery, and atmosphere. Barron seems to have a strong cult following among Cosmic horror fans and this story, I thought anyway, was quite intriguing.

The set-up is these two scientist/researchers are dropped off via helicopter in the middle of the forest by some large corporation that is doing unusual research on places like this, I assume places that have a strange history where odd or unexplained things have happened, to discover what sort of anomalies may have caused or influenced this history and perhaps if there is some sort of force present that may have been at the root of these events.

I actually was thinking about this because it does have some actual ties to reality but I don't know if these things influenced the story or film. I say ties to reality because there are instances of wealthy guys with large companies purchasing pieces of property with strange histories to research what may be going on there. One example would be this guy Robert Bigelow the founder of Bigelow Aerospace and The National Institute of Discovery Science. Bigelow purchased a piece of property dubbed Skinwalker Ranch in Utah where a whole variety strange activity had been reported. He closed it off to the public and began conducting research there that seems to have involved everything from UFO sightings, a Native American "shape shifter" called a Skinwalker, cattle mutilations, and unusual poltergeist activity. At certain points in this guy's research our government took an interest in what he was doing...thus creating a vast web of rumors and theories.

Funny enough, Bigelow sold the property finally and some other wealthy real estate guy bought it and now has his own team out there doing research on what is going on there. Of course due to the age we now live in this guy has turned his research into a television show which airs on the History channel (because the History channel now has fuck all to do with history but now is about aliens, guys who buy and sell people's old stuff, and digging up parts of an island off of the Canadian coast looking for treasure).

I happened to catch an episode of this show one night and it immediately made me think of this film. Due to the set-up being so similar. In fact the show starts with the new owner of Skinwalker Ranch hiring a new scientist and flying him out via helicopter to the middle of nowhere and plopping him down with the rest of the team to find out what the hell is going on in this little corner of Utah. I thought right away that this new owner is smarter than Bigelow because he is televising his "research" and likely will make more money off of owning this little piece of desert than Bigelow ever did. Plus it has the added bonus of allowing all the people that flocked to the ranch out of curiosity when it was closed to the public to actually see what's going on there. Perfect!

So, if you like the premise of this film tune in to History channel on Tuesday nights and you can watch something similar play out...only for real...whatever that means.

 

[TonyD]

I had forgotten this too.

I’ll have to see if it’s up anywher.
Have been watching That Skinwalker ranch show.
matter one episode it seems clear that any weird stuff is due to radioactive fallout from when they were doing tests near there. The wind carried all of it right to the area of the ranch.

Alsi have been watching Curse of Oak Island through all 7 seasons.
They just concluded s7 this week and still haven’t found squat.

 

[TonyD]

I used The Just Watch app and found this.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Have been watching That Skinwalker ranch show.
matter one episode it seems clear that any weird stuff is due to radioactive fallout from when they were doing tests near there. The wind carried all of it right to the area of the ranch.

In the first episode where the guy is hired to be the new scientist that will join the team I was thinking "Well, he seems pretty skeptical and he looks somewhat aggravated with the rest of the team. That seems promising."

Then just a couple episodes after that he seems...well...to be like a little kid running around doing and saying goofy stuff with the rest of the guys and not really practicing any sort of grounded approach to what they are seeing. I mean three episodes in they are all whooping it up about seeing a UFO and have done practically nothing to identify it and Mr. Skeptical new guy is just hollering with the rest of them about their historic find. I did think of the Oak Island show where it goes on for years and nothing happens. They occasionally find a coin or a button or a piece of wood or a nail...and then they make a huge deal out of what that "means" and go back to tearing up the island.

I also broke out laughing when one of the episodes of the Skinwalker show ends with a "cliffhanger" where the big boss owner directs the guy that runs the "control room" to show the new guy what is in "the case" like some giant revelation is coming. Then the next episode opens with the guy opening "the case" and all that is in it is a magnet he bought. Not some artifact he dug up on the ranch just a goddamn magnet he bought. I thought "Yeah, this show is going to have these guys doing one nutty thing after another drawing bonehead conclusions from every one of them and looking for a way to come up with some cliffhanger to draw you into the next episode."

The stuff is working wonderfully as comedy and to show how all the people that flocked to the ranch to see what was going on there were wasting their time but hey, this is now exactly the kind of show that defines "The History" channel. The damn "History" channel now shows practically nothing but incredibly stupid "Ancient Alien" shows where you hear the phrase "ancient alien theorist" over and over like it is a serious thing or a profession...when all that translates to is some guy sitting in his basement thinking up crap about how everything that ever happened on this planet had to have been accomplished through alien intervention.

I have just streamed the episodes on my laptop so far. They pop up on the History channel website after they air.

 

[TonyD]

I knew that the Skin show was gonna be off the rails when in the first ep, I think the first one, when the new owner shows up after hiring that guy to investigate the ranch and the owner tells him that he can’t dig because one of the ranch guys got a headache one time after digging.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I knew that the Skin show was gonna be off the rails when in the first ep, I think the first one, when the new owner shows up after hiring that guy to investigate the ranch and the owner tells him that he can’t dig because one of the ranch guys got a headache one time after digging.

The Skinwalker Ranch show did go absolutely nowhere and the odd thing is they shot another season of it. So, it will be back for, I don't know, 8 more episodes of guys running around saying "What is that in the sky?" and "No way I am going to let you dig on this ranch!"

They Remain, while fictional, is a lot more fun and a much more satisfying experience.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Here's what I had wrote about this picture in the Halloween Challenge thread...

They Remain (2018) - So, I discovered this one listening to a podcast about horror films inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. They mentioned this film and I had never heard of it. This is a very cool little film, I thought. The genre for this is "cosmic horror" or the more bland label "weird horror" which I honestly am not sure if I understand that designation because a lot of horror is weird.

Here's the set-up for this one, a large corporation has purchased a remote piece of land where strange things appear to be occurring with the plant, insect, and animal life on the land and they send a pair of researchers to investigate the source or cause of this anomaly. Obviously the company feels there is something of value here. The land has a history though having recently been the home of a violent cult and potentially even further back been the site of other human slaughters. The scientists begin with standard research into potential chemical causes but soon find themselves questioning how the history of what took place in this forest may play into the changes in the plants and animals there.

I thought this premise was great. This film is beautifully shot as they make the most of the remote forest setting and like a lot of low budget films employ basically just a small number of actors, the primary ones being the two research scientists. A lot of this film is built on the atmosphere it creates, which I loved, and is not at all about jump scares or any big effects. It is a well conceived picture that uses setting, actors, and dialogue to maximum effect. Essentially, this is a slow build as we are there in this remote forest with our two main characters learning about them, their history, and discovering with them the secrets of this piece of land.

This has been easily the best new film I have seen this month but I like this kind of picture where you are dropped into a mystery that puts the emphasis on characters, setting, and atmosphere. If you are looking for blood, guts, and jump scares this is not the place to go. If you want a picture that presents ideas for you to think about, dive right in.

View attachment 64629

 

[TonyD]

I follow a guy on twitter who is a ufo debunker.
He debunked everything with that cow that died and the ufo that was floating over the ranch.

He has a forum for people to post ufo sightings for him to debunk.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I follow a guy on twitter who is a ufo debunker.
He debunked everything with that cow that died and the ufo that was floating over the ranch.

He has a forum for people to post ufo sightings for him to debunk.

Does he do that as a hobby? What sort of qualifications does a guy need to be a UFO debunker? With everybody now walking around with a camera the potential that someone will film something they can't identify in the sky is pretty likely. I just recently shot some video during a lightning storm that shows some balls of light moving around wildly. I've shown it to people and they just shrug.

 

[TonyD]

I’ll look for the link.

 

[TonyD]

Here is his twitter.

https://twitter.com/mickwest?s=21

web site.

Metabunk

All about bunk, and how to (politely) debunk it.

www.metabunk.org