When I waited on line to see this film in theaters, the audience that had seen the film before me was letting out. A teenage girl, walking by looked me in the eye and said go see something else, this movie sucked. My response was, oh good, they finally made a movie that’s more for horror fans than for teenagers who need a quick fix and a scare. Now I’m not going to go on record as saying that THE STRANGERS is one of the best horror films ever made, in fact it’s far from it. THE STRANGERS does however have a unique and original style to it in the way it was filmed, but it does carry some of the same horror clichés we’ve all seen used before in horror films.
THE STRANGERS is about a young couple whom was recently at a wedding. While there James (Scott Speedman) asks Kristen (Liv Tyler) to marry him. While it’s not shown on screen it’s obvious that she said no. They go back to James’s father place, which is pretty much a hunting lodge of sorts in the middle of nowhere. They plan on spending the night in separate rooms and will part ways in the morning. But a strange knock on the door at 4am turns what was supposed to be a few hours of sleep into a morning of terror, when three strangers come knocking, and plan on tormenting James and Kristen, while they fight to get away from the three masked strangers.
The script for THE STRANGERS is simple yet effective. While all the horror elements in the film are nothing new, the films does present it’s story in real time, and its nothing but pure suspense for an hour and a half with no comedic breaks for the audience and no breathers for the characters. The character development for our two leads is very strong and we’re able to relate to them right away. The strangers on the other hand are a big mystery but behind their masks the writer gave them each a personality instead of making them your normal emotionless killers. It’s a script that gives the viewer a sense that this can happen to you or someone you know, and that’s what makes the script more psychologically scary.
The films acting is very good, it’s simple because there is not much of a cast, but both Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler were very good in their roles. The actors behind the masks were also very good as well. The production value although simple was very effective. The house location was perfect and the woods that surrounded the place gave you a feeling that no matter how loud the characters screamed no one would hear them for miles. In terms of camera work, writer director Bryan Bertino did a Hitchcock like job with the use of shots and overall atmosphere and misdirection he used. The movie relies more on suspense than gore, and although there are a few decent effects here and there, there really is not much gore or splatter. The good thing about THE STRANGERS is that it does not need to shock the audience with crude effects, but rather it uses the magic of the camera to scare the audience.
Overall, while THE STRANGERS is a film that does use a lot of cliché horror tricks that we’ve all seen before, the style and originally in which it was filmed really gives the film a very unique look. I personally looked at this film as one that honors the horror films of the nineteen fifties and sixties, where films didn’t rely on blood and gore, but rather relied on giving the audience a scare though there suspenseful camera shots and misdirection. THE STRANGERS is a breath of fresh air and is in the vain of films like Psycho and original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The DVD includes both the theatrical version and the unrated version of the film. it’s not a disc packed with features but it does have some including deleted scenes and a featurette titled “The Element of Terror” about making the film. Overall it’s worth the buy for the movie it’s self. It is one of the better horror films I’ve seen this year.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
