2022 American film
| They Live in the Grey | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by |
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| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Jimmy Jung Lu |
| Edited by | Cole Duran |
| Music by | David Williams |
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| Distributed by | Shudder |
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| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
They Live in the Grey is a 2022 American supernatural horror film, written and directed by Abel Vang and Burlee Vang. The film stars Michelle Krusiec, Ken Kirby, Madelyn Grace, J.R. Cacia, and Ellen Wroe. The movie was released via streaming service Shudder on February 17, 2022.
Plot
Claire Yang (Michelle Krusiec) a worker at CPS, and her police officer husband, Peter (Ken Kirby) spend a somber evening recounting the memory of their dead son.
Claire is shown to be able to see ghosts, and even interact with them. Some ghosts end up physically harming her in some way, while others just yell or stare. She is shown to deal with them by using pills and sleeping in the closet among other things.
She is called to the house of a potentially abused child, Sophie Lang (Madelyn Grace). While there she meets the parents, Audrey, a part-time travel agent and Giles, a realtor. Sophie, the daughter, has been showing up to school with various injuries that they first blame on skateboard falls but Claire is able to figure out there’s a ghost in the house. The ghost is shown performing a variety of tasks including tossing Sophie into a closet, and forcing Audrey’s hand onto a knife.
Through flashbacks more is revealed about Claire and Peter as well as details on how they lost their son, Lucas. Claire sees Lucas’ ghost and suffers quietly while her husband lashes out at work including assaulting a man in custody.
Back in the present Claire agrees to Audrey’s request that she try to contact the ghost. During the seance she has visions of a woman in a nightgown at a spinning wheel, and later kneeling in the bathroom with slit wrists, before seeing the woman murdering a man in the house, along with flashes of a young dead boy.
The visions put Claire into a catatonic state and she wakes up in the hospital next to a woman named Ada, who gives her life advice. She leaves her room at night and encounters several ghosts. When she returns to her room she sees Ada, out of bed, marveling at her ability to walk. Claire suggests that Ada has a “choice” to leave, and Ada agrees before vanishing.
Audrey tells Claire she’s experiencing fugue states, and confirms that Giles cheated on her while she was pregnant with Sophie, and adds that he only came back because she was pregnant. Claire shares the full story of her son’s death via a hit and run while walking home from school because she was too high to drive him home. She tells Audrey firmly that she is “going to lose her daughter”.
Claire dreams of the woman in the nightgown. The next day, Audrey confronts her about the upcoming CPS hearing to remove Sophie from the home. Audrey finds out her boss filed it and is firing her. Claire drives to the place her son was found and gets him to move on while doing so herself.
At home she dumps all her pills down the sink and moves back into her bedroom from the closet before calling Peter and saying she wants to tell him everything, inviting him over that night.
Later, Claire is confronted by the woman in the nightgown who shows her another vision clarifying that the man she had killed was her husband and she had murdered him to avenge their son, whom the husband had strangled. The woman then shows Claire visions of Audrey hitting Sophie, and that the ghost had been protecting Sophie by throwing her in the closet, not hurting her.
Claire drives to Sophie’s house to find the door open. The woman in the nightgown leads her inside to find Audrey pointing a gun at Giles. She admits to hitting Sophie and says she’s going to kill her. Claire tries to grab the gun and it goes off, killing Giles. They wrestle for the gun and Audrey falls down the stairs, seemingly dead.
When Claire next checks on Audrey’s body it is gone. She and Sophie run for the door and are met by Audrey with a knife. They fight, and in the process Claire is stabbed twice. Pleading for help from the ghost, she is answered by Audrey’s neck being snapped by an invisible force.
Peter shows up to find an unconscious Claire in the kitchen and calls for help. They are next shown with a healing Claire on crutches as they visit Lucas’ grave. Claire confesses her ability to Peter and tells him she has decided to use it to help ghosts move on.
Reception
Matt Donato of Paste wrote, "They Live in the Grey is a modest indie with thematic layers and evergreen mortal dread that could use two or three more editing bay passes. The longer everything goes, the harder actors strain to grasp the heartbreaking poignancy of irreplaceable loss. At times, They Live in the Grey can feel bisected between Claire’s paranormal home life and Sophie’s possible abuse, made worse by the Vangs’ choice to ditch linear storytelling for sometimes unnoticeable chronological leaps. It’s a courageous approach to relatable horrors that foolishly fails to keep things simple—one that desperately requires more focus to let Claire’s introspective gravedance truly shine." Leslie Felperin of The Guardian stated, "They Live in the Grey is another classy effort on the Shudder streaming platform, properly scary and thoughtfully constructed, with unusual editing and framing sleights of hand..."
Cast
- Michelle Krusiec as Claire Yang
- Ken Kirby as Peter Yang
- Madelyn Grace as Sophie Lang
- J.R. Cacia as Giles Lang
- Ellen Wroe as Audrey Lang
- Mercedes Manning as The Woman
- Willie S. Hosea as Lloyd
- Audrey Moore as Jane
- Jaden Tran as Lucas Yang
References
- "They Live in the Grey (2022)". FilmAffinity. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- "They Live in the Grey". Metacritic. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- "They Live in the Grey (2022)". The A.V. Club. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
- Stone, Sam (February 15, 2022). "They Live in the Grey Effectively Blends Personal Drama With Supernatural Scares". CBR.com. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
- Donato, Matt (February 16, 2022). "Underwhelming, Overlong Trauma-Horror They Live in the Grey Is for the Hallmark Crossover Crowd". Paste. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
- Felperin, Leslie (February 16, 2022). "They Live in the Grey review – dead people get seen in artful poltergeist chiller". The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2022.