The Strangers (2008)


The Strangers came out a time when horror was at a low point.  One of the biggest criticisms was that a number of the movies, like later Saw films or Hostel, were just excuses to show scenes of people getting tortured.  Also, creepy masks on killers seems like a cheap way of causing discomfort.  Therefore, for the longest time, I had no desire to see this movie.  Still, it got some good reviews, and circumstances led me to checking it out.  It is no masterpiece of horror, but it is also not another rote millennial horror film.

James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) and Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) go to a remote summer home owned by James's father after his proposal to Kristen goes wrong.  Thinking this is the end of their relationship James calls his friend Mike (Glenn Howerton) to come pick him up once he gets sober.  Though it's late they receive a knock on the door from a strange woman (Gemma Ward) asking if someone is home.  They tell her she has the wrong house, but Kristen is still concerned.

James leaves for a bit and, while he is gone, the woman returns wearing a doll mask.  Along with her are a man wearing a sack on his head (Kip Weeks) and another woman with a mask of a pin-up girl (Laura Margolis).  They begin to psychologically torture Kristen and, when James returns, she has to convince him of what is going on.  It doesn't take too much convincing as they soon destroy his car and begin to besiege the house, eventually taking the couple hostage. 

I was relieved to find out this was not 90 minutes of the main characters tied up and being tormented by the intruders.  Instead, writer and director Bryan Bertino spends the better part of the movie slowly ramping up the atmosphere, using nervous handheld camera movements and shadows to great advantage.  There are a few scenes with the masked man that reference the original Halloween.  Where it gets a bit sketchy is where it claims to be based on real events, where those events are something that involved a number of break-ins in Bertino's neighborhood when he was a child. 

Speedman and Tyler manage to underplay the tension between them, not screaming or smashing things like some directors would have them do.  There is never any explanation given for why she turned down his proposal or really anything outside the barebones events in the film.  There are no deep motives for the killers nor any satisfying resolution.  This is why, although the series has a fanbase, only this movie out of all of them has really worked.

The Strangers (2008)
Time: 86 minutes
Starring: Scott Speedman, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis
Director: Bryan Bertino

 

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