The Strangers (2008)

After returning from a wedding reception, a young couple staying in an isolated vacation house receive a knock on the door in the middle of the night. What ensues is a violent invasion by three strangers, their faces hidden behind masks. The couple find themselves in a violent struggle, in which they go beyond what either of them thought capable in order to survive.

The Strangers is a 2008 horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino, and starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Glenn Howerton, Gemma Ward, Laura Margolis, and Kip Weeks. It was ambiguously marketed as being “inspired by true events”, although writer and director Bryan Bertino has stated that the film was inspired by a series of break-ins that occurred in his neighborhood as a child, as well as some incidents that occurred during the Manson killings.

The film revolves around a young couple, James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) who are terrorized by three masked assailants, who break into the remote summer home in which they are staying. The couple return to the house after a night out in which James  had just proposed but Kristen said no. After an emotional beginning and lots of crying, the couple are rudely interrupted from ‘making up’ by a knock at the door.

This is when the creepy times begin. Faces at windows, power cuts, bad guys knowing every movement and hiding place the good guys use. It just seemed to be using every cliché ever used before, and really offered nothing original. There were so many stupid mistakes on the behalf of the lead characters. I mean, James left his girlfriend alone after the first knock on the door and confrontation with a strange girl. Later on he had an ‘accident’ with a gun he had. Kristen lost the knife she was carrying. In a shed full of weapons and instruments she leaves them all. I literally could go on, just so many poor  errors in judgement.

There were some positives though. The tension was built up nicely throughout, with lots of silences, creepy voices, jump scares, and a nice use of songs, sometimes very loud which worked well. Liv Tyler looked beautiful as always and she was far and away the best part of the movie. Giving off a quiet but effective performance she did the best with what she had to work with.

The film was shot entirely with hand-held cameras or steady cams. Every shot has some camera movement and I know a lot of people don’t like this style of shooting. It doesn’t really bother me, it was more the overall story which was disappointing. The Strangers has been summarised as a poor version of the French film ‘Them’ and I’ll be reviewing that film soon and will able to offer my thoughts on the comparison. There wasn’t a great deal of violence on show despite the films tagline and plot. Only a couple of scenes towards the end show any blood, whilst other things happen off camera and we get to see the remains.

In conclusion I was disappointed with The Strangers. I felt it had potential to be a lot better than it was. There were some good creepy scenes and effective scares, but they were few and far between and ultimately outweighed by poor decision making and a weak story. A nice redeeming point was the ending which at least went for something different rather than be a typical cop-out Hollywood style ending. Strangers 2 is due to film later this year so I will look forward to seeing if a sequel can up its game and improve on what should be a frightening premise. It’s just a raw fear having people terrorize you in your own home, and done right can be a great movie (see Inside for an example). It is not done right in The Strangers sadly.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on July 20, 2012

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