"The Strangers" is no stranger to horror convention

by Eric Melin on May 29, 2008

in Print Reviews

An out-of-place “Law & Order”-style opening narration clues you in that “The Strangers” was “inspired by real events.” The authoritative voice goes on to tell you some statistics about violent crime (as the movie prints them for us to read as well) before ending with the shocking admission that, in this case, nobody really knows what happened.

(It reminds me of the Coen brothers “Fargo,” which stated “This is a true story” in the opening and claimed that all persons were fictitious in the closing credits.)

It’s not “shocking,” of course, that writer/director Bryan Bertino would lead the audience astray. Yes, violent crimes happen. No, this movie is not based on any one couple in particular. Cheap scare tactic? Why not? “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was falsely marketed as a true story too.

the strangers liv tylerBertino is skilled enough at telling his stalker-horror story with all the classic elements of a good suspense film, so giving it the “real events” tagline just further convinces that this could happen to you. “The Strangers”—starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler as James and Kristen, a young couple who are terrorized late at night in a summer house—is all about perspective. We meet the couple after a marriage proposal gone bad. A very convincing opening sequence with lots of silence doesn’t reveal why James’ offer was rejected, and it doesn’t have to.

It is too bad that the villains’ motives couldn’t have been left unspoken as well.

Simple in its setup and implementation, “The Strangers” makes the most of three masked psychos stalking a couple. Modestly shot with hand-held cameras and low camera positions, the movie puts you in the same spot as the victims. The sparse use of scary-score music puts the emphasis instead on scratchy old country records, loud knocks on the doors, and more silence. Bertino knows what he wants, but after a good 45 minutes of playing every tastefully suspenseful card in the deck, the movie begins to drag and the spookiness is replaced by ridiculousness.

For a while there, it looked like Bertino would avoid the classic horror pitfalls. Hey, a couple of them are fine—they’re staples of the genre, right? They’re in there because they work well. True, but when you resort to them to stretch out time while tension is supposed to be mounting, that’s not so good.

The eventual ‘unlikely character decisions’ surface, as James does something really stupid—twice.

Not only do the bad guys have the ability to be everywhere they need to be to maximize their stalking potential, but they also have time to write nasty messages on the walls and windows for our protagonists to see.

the strangers scott speedman“Look! There’s somebody over there!” but a second look reveals—nothing! The ‘suddenly disappearing villain’ is a good trick once, maybe twice; but after the sixth time, it doesn’t make very good suspense-sense.

Thank God the torture in this movie is mostly psychological, though. I’ve got to credit Bertino with the sense enough to not resort to shocking gore to make up for lack of suspense. The final act, however, is as messy as a plate of spaghetti.

Little time is spent with the masked assailants—which is fine—until the moments they do get are completely wasted. “Why are you doing this?” is the cry that Kristen repeats during the attack, and it’s the question on our minds as well. The answer reduces any existentialist nightmare the filmmaker may have conjured up in the previous minutes to a pithy punchline. Following that, there is further unnecessary development on the trio’s part and a sad attempt at irony occurs with two young Mormon pamphlet-pushers.

Not only does this ruin the ending, but after avoiding the typical for as long as he could, Bertino gives in for one more final, ruinous horror convention that I won’t reveal (unless you click here).

There’s enough good in “The Strangers” to make a very frightening short film, but as a feature-length movie, it falls into too many of the traps it seemed so determined to avoid.

Eric is the Editor-in-Chief of Scene-Stealers.com, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and contributor for The Pitch. He’s former President of the KCFCC, and drummer for The Dead Girls, Ultimate Fakebook, and Truck Stop Love . He is also the 2013 Air Guitar World Champion Mean Melin, ranked 4th best of all-time. Eric goes to 11. Follow him at:

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{ 7 comments }

1 Reed May 30, 2008 at 12:13 pm

That the put the answer to the question “Why are you doing this?” in their actual commercials was enough to keep me away. Well, not the fact that they included it, but the content of the answer itself.

2 RCM May 31, 2008 at 1:54 am

I love the spoiler link.

3 Eric Melin May 31, 2008 at 1:48 pm

I wonder if the ending and the answer to her question were added due to studio pressure or the director’s own “commercial” instincts…

4 ThE GhoUl DiVa© July 10, 2008 at 2:30 pm

the movie itself does not have a story to follow up with… meaning u can walk in and start watching the movie without watching the lovey quiet “romatic” begining and u wouldn;t have missed anything that is relevant to the story… i do accept as a scary movie beats balls… despite the fact that once again i repeat the movie has no story it was scary somehow i jumped out off the chair a few times but at the end once again dissapointed… WTF!!! thats all i can say about the ending… scary yet not good…

5 Beck July 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm

This sounds suspiciously like the French movie “Them.” It also had a disappointing ending, but was assuredly based on real events. The couple was found murdered. When the perpetrators were asked why they killed the couple, they said, “They wouldn’t play with us.”

Late one night, Lucas (Michaël Cohen) and Clémentine (Olivia Bonamy) encounter strange events in their remote country home. It starts with prank calls and strange noises, but when the power is cut off and their car disappears, the terrified couple is trapped by the unseen force. Is it simply kids from the school where Clémentine teaches, or could it have something to do with a mother and daughter who mysteriously vanished the day before?

6 Eric Melin July 17, 2008 at 11:11 am

I’ve heard talk of that movie being mentioned in the same breath as this one and I believe that was even acknowledged by the director! I’ll definitely have to check it out when my house returns to normal and I can watch my Netflix movies again.

7 jerry October 28, 2008 at 12:04 am

There goes 90 mins of my life….drifting by on a sea futility and human waste disquised as artistic creation. I wih I had read your review first.

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