''They Wait'' is a 2007 Canadian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

directed by

Ernie Barbarash Ernie Barbarash is a film director, screenwriter and producer, perhaps best known as co-producer of the films ''American Psycho 2'', '' Cube 2: Hypercube'', ''Prisoner of Love'', '' The First 9½ Weeks'' and ''The Cat's Meow''. Barbarash also wro ...

. It stars

Jaime King Jaime King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she used the names Jamie King and James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency alread ...

as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of

Ghost Month The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: ) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival () in Buddhism, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countri ...

. The other leading star is Chinese Canadian actor

Terry Chen Terry Chen (born February 3, 1975) is a Canadian film and television actor. Early life Chen was born in Edmonton, Alberta, to Taiwanese and Chinese parents originating from Taiwan (father) and mainland China (mother). After primary and second ...

, who plays her husband. It was both filmed, and set, in the city of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

, in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, and was featured at the 2007

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

Plot

Married couple Sarah (

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

) and Jason ( Chen), and son Sammy ( Oey), travel to

for the funeral of Uncle Raymond (Foo). During this time, Sammy begins to see ghosts and falls gravely ill, his illness coinciding with the Chinese festival of

. After traditional western medicine fails to help Sammy, Sarah turns to a mysterious pharmacist who tells her that her son is held in a death grip by a living corpse. Sarah now must find what the spirits want before the last day of Ghost Month, or Sammy will be lost forever.

Cast

as Jason *

as Sarah * Regan Oey as Sammy *

Cheng Pei-pei Cheng Pei-pei (born 6 January 1946) is a Chinese actress, who is considered cinema's first female action hero. She is known for her performance in the 1966 King Hu ''wuxia'' film ''Come Drink with Me'', as well as her portrayal of Jade Fox in ...

as Aunt Mei *

Henry O Henry O (; born July 7, 1927) is a former Chinese-American actor. He is the father of Ji-li Jiang, the author of ''Red Scarf Girl''. O was born in Shanghai in 1927 and attended British and American missionary schools in China. He worked as a s ...

as Pharmacist *Colin Foo as Raymond *Chang Tseng as Xiang * Vicky Huang as Shen *

Michael Biehn Michael Connell Biehn ( ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in '' The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens'' (1986), and ...

as Blake *Donald Fong as Ben *Wally Houn as Pang *Stephen M.D. Chang as Funeral Director *

Donny Lucas Donald James "Donny" Lucas is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for voicing Disco Kid in ''Punch Out!!'', Zed in ''League of Legends'', Mr. Fix in '' Iron Man: Armored Adventures'', and the Lucius Fox A.I. in ''Batwoman''. Earl ...

as Sam's Doctor *Suzanne Bastien as Nurse #1 *Erika Conway as Nurse #2 *Grace Fatkin as Receptionist *

Joseph May Joseph May is a British-born Canadian actor, who has appeared in television and film. He is best known for his role as Andy Button in the television series ''Episodes'', Paul who was the boyfriend of Sam Colloby, in '' Casualty'', Luke in ''I Liv ...

as Paramedic *

Yee Jee Tso Yee Jee Tso (born March 10, 1975 in Hong Kong) is a Canadian actor. Tso and his family emigrated to Canada when he was 6 months old. He grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood and booked his first role at age 15. His television roles i ...

as Pharmacy Store Clerk *Paul Wu as Young Raymond *Maggie Ma as Young Mei *Nelson Wong as Young Ben * Vincent Tong as Young Xiang *Igor Ingelsman as Worker

Production

''They Wait'' was filmed on location in Vancouver in March 2007.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on , with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 5.8/10. Joe Leydon of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that "Director Ernie Barbarash makes judicious use of CGI trickery -- in one key scene, he cleverly shocks his audience into laughing -- but at heart, he's an old-school traditionalist when it comes to scary stuff." The ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

'' and ReelFilm both panned the film, with ReelFilm's David Nusair saying that ''They Wait'' is "...a tedious and downright silly piece of work."

References

External links

* * *
They Wait
' at the

2007 Toronto International Film Festival The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival was a 32nd annual film festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It ran from September 6, 2007 to September 15, 2007. The lineup consisted of 349 films from 55 countries, selected from 4156 submissio ...

* {{Ernie Barbarash 2007 films Canadian supernatural horror films Films set in Vancouver Films shot in Vancouver 2007 horror films Brightlight Pictures films Films directed by Ernie Barbarash English-language Canadian films 2000s English-language films 2000s Canadian films