Theatrical Poster
The Strangers (Theatrical – 2008)
Universal / 2008
Directed by Bryan Bertino
Written by Bryan Bertino
Cast: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman
Review by Adam F. Tracey
Kristen and James are staying at James’ parents retreat after attending a wedding reception. There is already tension between the two after a rejected marriage proposal. Jeff, while out clearing his head late at night, weird things start happening back at the ranch to Kristen. The typical strange noises at the door, scratching on the window and mysterious masked figures appearing in random places all kick off a hellish night.
The premise of home invasion is a timely one and one that does invoke a natural sense of fear or at least uneasiness. Just the idea that people might come in and mess with your stuff or violate your family is not one that most can handle. I believe the movie got a boost, because people went in already having played the ‘what ifs’ of a film like this in their head. That doesn’t fly with horror geeks, because in our dreams after invaders broke in it is followed by us pulling out a giant crossbow and slaying the baddies with our faithful and sexy side kick played by some little hottie wearing next to nothing, but to the average person they were probably scared before the trailers ran.
That said the first half of the movie was done very well. The movie moved very slowly and the acting was very subdued. They prolonged the action for the maximum time they could without losing the audience. The problem was once it got going it really didn’t go anywhere. You saw what was going to happen at every turn. You knew from which tree they were going to jump or at what time they would appear. The ending to this movie was terribly disappointing. There was one brief moment of relief in the end sequences, but overall they were plain, dull and did nothing for the movie.
The Strangers is a one trick pony. It relied on the same ‘gotcha’ moment for the entirety of the movie. While I complain I really can’t knock the choices made by the director. The audience I viewed his with were scared and jumped out of their seats each time a mask appeared behind one of our heroes. I am happy to say it is nice to somebody trying to make a horror movie that doesn’t depend on gore, CG or over the top violence, not that I have a problem with that.
