They Live in the Grey   Starring: Michelle Krusiec, Madelyn Grace, Ken Kirby and Ellen Wroe Distributor: Acorn Media International RRP: £15.99 AV3692 5 036193 036927 Certificate: 18 Release Date: 26 September 2022

Claire (Michelle Krusiec) is a child care social worker. She is also clairvoyant and has been plagued by spirits from a young age. So, when she is handed a new child protection case involving a young girl called Sophie who has scratches and bruises Claire suspects the situation is not what it seems. There is a sinister force in the house, and she begins to see spirits and witness violent events from the past. However, Claire has her own problems. She is estranged from her husband and wracked with guilt after she failed to collect their young son from school, resulting in his abduction and death. Every night she is visited both in dreams and reality by her mutilated boy and other frightening events to the point she is forced to sleep in a cupboard. Can she learn to listen to the dead and help not only Sophie but her own situation...?

Acorn Media International releases the Shudder Original DVD release of They Live in the Grey, a paranormal horror/thriller written and directed by The Vang Brothers (not to be mistaken for The Pang Brothers, who made the excellent original version of The Eye). It also features Ken Kirby and Ellen Wroe as Sophie’s parents Giles and Audrey. The film is very much not what it seems, and borrows from The Sixth Sense and other sources to employ clever twists at the end. As a part of the build-up to that point convincing emotion is employed as Claire effectively pushes everyone in her life away, because she can’t live with what she believes she is responsible for.

Consequently, the viewer is drawn into Claire’s downward spiralling life. She is constantly living on the edge, and even her separated husband is at his wits end attempting to break down the wall she has created around her. In realty, if somebody experienced what this character does on a daily bases they would probably be living in a padded cell by now. It does, however, have the effectiveness of cranking-up the tension. This film is all about the ending and once you witness it, what has gone before is appreciated significantly more. I certainly upped my rating based on the effect the conclusion has. At times, it is felt that Claire lives in her own little world, sometimes going through the motions and at others subjected to events which are left ambiguous as to whether they are real or a figment of her fevered imagination. Check this one out.

8

Ty Power