Courtesy of Paladin

They Remain, Philip Gelatt’s adaptation of Laird Barron’s short story “–3–,” is a mysterious, slow-building thriller, as disquieting as it is visually striking. With an unsettling electronic score to match Sean Kirby’s stark, atmospheric cinematography, the film is haunting and hallucinogenic, with no straightforward answers and a somewhat open-ended resolution. Anyone looking for a tidy narrative or classic horror story won’t find it here.

The story concerns two young scientists, Keith and Jessica (William Jackson Harper and Rebecca Henderson, both very good), who have been sent to investigate a secluded wooded area to find an explanation for inexplicable changes in animal behavior. They are both aware that the area was once the site of a massacre by a Manson-like cult; in Jessica’s case, the subject is an admitted obsession. Aside from being told that the mission “could make you famous,” they’re not altogether clear on the motives of their shadowy corporate employer. As the days go on and they experience increasingly disturbing phenomena, their relationship becomes fraught, veering from wary professionalism to paranoia and worse.

Camped out in a triad of high-tech geodesic domes housing a lab and sleeping quarters, Keith and Jessica at first banter philosophically about the mission and the area’s history, as they get to know each other. During the day, he goes out exploring and sets up several cameras in the woods; Jessica runs tests on specimens he brings back, but the results are frustratingly inconclusive.

Courtesy of Paladin

Soon she becomes suspicious, accusing him of knocking on the hatch at night to scare her. She ventures outside and reports bizarre insect activity as well as strange voices. Initially, Keith is the voice of reason, attributing her experiences to various natural causes.

Meanwhile we glimpse flashbacks of young people — ostensibly cult members — frolicking in the woods, as Keith wakes up from a series of intense nightmares. The often-malfunctioning cameras begin picking up increasingly violent images, unless these too are nightmares. Nothing is clear, adding to the general feeling of disorientation.

After Keith and Jessica find a buried cache of human bones, a guy from the corporation helicopters to take the specimens back for testing. Suspiciously casual, he laughingly tells of the terrible plight of a CSI team that previously investigated the site. Not a good sign.

Courtesy of Paladin

Things really get weird after Jessica finds a strange artifact in a cave. She and Keith have fevered sex and his dreams/hallucinations increase. One night he hears loud knocking on their hatch and loud whispering outside, but the cameras catch nothing.  Now he becomes the freaked-out one, accusing Jessica of lying about her activities during the day. He requests an immediate evacuation, to no avail.

As Keith’s paranoia mounts, so does the film’s tension. An inevitable violent confrontation leads to a final scene that leaves us wondering what exactly has happened here. The film is obviously meant to be loose and impressionistic and it certainly does succeed at setting a beautifully rendered ambience,  but it might have benefited from a slightly tighter narrative.

For those, however,  who prefer an artfully impressionistic creep-out to a classic scary movie, They Remain should more than do the trick.

They Remain opens on Friday, March 2, at Village East Cinema.

—Marina Zogbi