They Live in the Grey

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They Live in the Grey
They Live in the Grey cover.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
  • Abel Vang
  • Burlee Vang
Written by
  • Abel Vang
  • Burlee Vang
Produced by
  • Stephen Stanley
  • Abel Vang
  • Burlee Vang
Starring
CinematographyJimmy Jung Lu
Edited byCole Duran
Music by David Williams
Production
companies
  • STANDOFF Pictures
  • Whiskey Stream Productions
Distributed by Shudder
Release date
  • February 17, 2022 (2022-02-17)(United States)
Running time
123 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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. [1] [2] The movie was released via streaming service Shudder on February 17, 2022.

Contents

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. This surprises Claire, as she tells Audrey that she hasn't turned in the file on Sophie yet. Claire then finds out that her boss turned Sophie's CPS file in without her knowledge, and after informing Claire of this, he fires her. Claire drives to the field where her son's body was found and finds his ghost there. She helps him to move on to the afterlife, while finally allowing herself to move on with her life as well.

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 that she was the one who had been causing the injuries to Sophie, not the ghost. Audrey explains to a shocked Giles that he "took her life" from her when he got her pregnant with Sophie. As revenge, she tells Claire that she's going to kill Sophie and then herself, so that Giles will have to suffer the rest of his life as well. Claire tries to grab the gun, but it accidentally goes off, killing Giles. Audrey and Claire wrestle for the gun, firing it into the ceiling until it's empty. Claire eventually fights off Audrey, causing her to tumble to the bottom of the stairs, seemingly dead.

Claire goes back in the room to get Sophie, but when they return to the stairs Audrey's body is gone. She and Sophie run for the front door, but Audrey appears and stabs Claire in the lower back before they can escape. While on the floor injured, Claire tells Sophie to run. Audrey attacks Claire again, stabbing her in the leg this time. Before she can kill Claire, however, Sophie returns and hits her mom with a pan. Claire pleads for the ghost in the nightgown to help them, and her plea is answered as Audrey suddenly has her arm, leg, and finally her neck snapped by an invisible force, killing her. The ghost then appears to Claire, no longer frightening looking, and they both acknowledge each other before she disappears to the afterlife.

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. The final scene shows Claire sitting in a couples' house, as the couple asks her if she can help them with a ghost problem. [3] [4]

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." [5] 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..." [6]

Cast

References

  1. "They Live in the Grey (2022)". FilmAffinity . Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  2. "They Live in the Grey". Metacritic . Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  3. "They Live in the Grey (2022)". The A.V. Club . Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  4. Stone, Sam (February 15, 2022). "They Live in the Grey Effectively Blends Personal Drama With Supernatural Scares". CBR.com . Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.