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It sounds like Little Marvin when he mentions love for 90s horror, have in mind more than anything else the commercial horror films produced in the United States. It appears quite evident from the staging of the horror scenes, from the camera that focuses on bodies torn apart by the violence suffered, or on the faces deformed by the anguish and fear of the torturers and victims: the producer prefers a marked ostentation, rather sterile and smug. What is chilling and brutal is the reconstruction of a too recent past, where white policemen attack black suspects with kicks and punches, where black officers remain silent, shocked and dismayed or cautiously try to interfere. Where being female and black puts Dawn in a constant state of danger even though she is a law enforcement officer. The debt towards Peele’s cinematography, even on a creative and visual level, is still evident. It’s not a criticism, the criticism lies in the realization that the horror of They relies on clichés. Terror resonates as a forced experience. Little Marvin claims to love horror but shows no passion, neither for stylistic research, nor for finding something innovative to add to the genre. More seriously, there is no fun in his interpretation of fear. That of They It’s a horror movie that doesn’t entertain.
