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Just For The Fun Of It...
The most frightening aspect of THE STRANGERS is the three demonic killers' total lack of empathy, compassion, or conscience. These folks are true thrill-killers who enjoy what they do, hunting, tormenting, and murdering their prey w/ simple glee. This is what they do for fun. Unfortunately, people like this exist in our world. Just watch a few episodes of FORENSIC FILES or COLD CASE FILES if you need convincing! Murder doesn't seem to require much of a motive these days. I read a story yesterday about a kid who killed a college student out of "boredom". Yep, THE STRANGERS packs a wallup because it could actually happen, has happened, is happening. Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) are unlucky enough to be home when these evil-spirits-in-flesh come knocking. The reactions of the victims appear foolish at times. However, these are two average people up against a situation they cannot comprehend. They react out of panic and terror, not logic. It all happens too fast for deep thought! I watched this unrated version twice last night. Once for the scares, and again for the nuances and things that I might have missed. This one will be remembered...
The Strangers
It would be easy to hate The Strangers, one of the big horror releases theatrically this year that seems to divide its audiences in between the haters, and the lovers. I can't really fall between either category but like Roger Ebert who in his review stated the story of director Bryan Bertino who had toiled away as a small player in Hollywood before finally landing his big first directing gig I can at least appreciate what it does right I suppose. For one thing the movie isn't a torture film like its been likend to. Instead its more of a cat and mouse flick with two, easygoing likeable characters who are terrorized by three strangers in masks who more or less haunt the main characters until the final minutes. Thats what goes on in the movie. Kirsten and James are a couple on the rocks. James has just proposed to Kirsten who hasn't accepted it and they're in a rocky patch. They're talking it over staying at a family home of James in the middle of nowhere. He's waiting on his friend Mike ready to give her time to himself. In the middle of this comes the first stranger, a girl who keeps asking a for a friend who's not there. She goes away and then James goes to a store to get cigarettes for Kristen. And then of course the strangers come back haunting Kristen until James shows up to be a victim too. Yay for James!
I'll be honest that Bertino does do alright building suspense. Like every other horror director out there He's influenced by the films of the seventies most notably Carpenter's Halloween with a fallback being The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with an awesome opening narration from one of those awesome trailer guys. He builds up his suspense even though from the opening you can pretty much guess the ending isn't going to be a nice huggy muggy moment. But at the same time theres character moments that can best be described as stupid. To me they came off as problems with Bertino's writing. Of course though you can't really have moments of genius where say James and Kristen steal a recently arrived car or see a phone lying beside a corpse that comes into play in the end. Of course The Strangers themselves have the ability to appear and disappear like they stole Hiro Nakamura's time space continum ability and look cool. And theres a scene near the end where Kristen hides in a closet so the male Stranger can walk around the house wheezing when she can find a lot better places that wouldn't have the cool slits in the door. For those faults I liked the moments where Bertino keeps it real in the way Kristen or James react to things. Theres a great moment where Mike, James' friend shows up and meets a rather suprising end that I was misdirected from seeing. And with the writing problems theres also one thing that irked me to no end in that the whole thing has been shot with a handheld camera. I like The Shield. I like what Frank Darabont did with The Shields cinematographers in The Mist but the handheld to me was obnoxiously overdone in this movie. Bertino composes some nice shots of the strangers but the film would have benefited from steadier shots for at least the calmer scenes of the movie perhaps doing the handheld thing when Kristen and James are stalking through the house. Bertino has his faults and gifts as a director writer. In my opinion I hope He grows as a filmmaker and does become a name worth regarding.
One more note on the acting front I suppose. Both Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler do good making Kristen and James into some sort of sad tragic horror film characters who at the end of the end of the film its easy to feel sorry for. Glenn Howerton from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia shows up for a couple of minutes as Mike. As for the Strangers they're creepy enough in the smaller scenes or details of the movie. I like Gemma Ward's oddness again part of the artificiality of the direction and theres some small details that work like the ending where they take off their masks-to which We're still not shown their faces which is nice. They have a stupid scene with Jehova's witness kids who open but the Unrated version adds a bit with the male stranger standing behind Kristen as She hears a phone ringing. The acting is decent but nothing spectacular to keep it short.
In the end theres a promise for a sequel. I liked the movie well enough at times and it worked more than most horror films I've seen this year. Still I don't think another movie where characters are menaced by weirdos in masks will work a second time over.
As for the dvd theres two deleted scenes and a featurette. The image is dark but that seems to be the way the film was shot. A note that everyone keeps comparing this movie to the french thriller Ils (Them). I wouldn't say anything about Doug Davidson and Roy Lee being the producers of this film but there was a bit with mud thrown at glass used in both films so I don't know if its true are not. In the end I gues the whole film isn't really original as it is so a few more cribs here or there isn't suprising.
2 ½ Stars: U.S. remake of the French Horror-Thriller "THEM"...Supposed Realism Flies out the Window...
After watching the French-horror thriller "THEM" a few months ago, I didn't really have high hopes for its American remake: "THE STRANGERS". The French original was based on true events that happened in Romania; "Them" was full of atmosphere and the actors portrayed a very panicked couple who were trying to survive. The American remake is no different, similar plot--with a different screenplay. So how does it compare to the original?
A young couple, James and Kristen (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler respectively) goes to a summer house after attending a wedding for a little "R & R". Apparently their "love" had become strained due to the fact that Kristen had rejected James' proposal. The two are quite uncomfortable around each other with James acting embarrassed about the whole thing. The two thought that they could try to reconnect with each other this evening, little do they know that this may become their most horrific night together as the summer house is assaulted by "The Strangers"...
I had mixed feeling about "Them", but I can very well say that the French original is a lot better than this film. This film would have done a lot better if it just matched the original shot for shot, and avoided any attempts at another screenplay. There isn't much that happens in "The Strangers" and while I do accept the idea of one night--a couple--in a big house--attacked by home invaders--the film resorted to the usual weaknesses that made horror films so full of cliché.
The usual clichés are present in this film; very idiotic decisions, panicked reactions that doesn't make any sense and antagonists that "toy" with their victims. At least, in "Them" the couple were making credible attempts to survive; in this remake, James and Kristen seem to be just waiting for death. Sure, the antagonists were probably "spooking" them out, but all their reactions did not make sense. All the potentially "good" decisions were abandoned so the film can get to where it wanted to go. Talk about "Lambs to the Slaughter"...
Now, I can ignore clichés as long as the film knows where it is going but here, the antagonists spend a very significant amount of time standing around, walking the house and trying to intimidate --writing notes in walls and windows with red (I assume either lipstick or paint) the film just dawdles too much in trying to be creepy that it lost all elements of realism. (This is supposed to be based on a real story, right?) The lack of character development may be ignored so long as one can relate to the characters, when the viewer is immersed in the proceedings. The antagonists are all wearing masks that look rather silly and one look at those masks you'd know their intentions were obviously hostile. "Them" had it right with the hooded sweaters and the trickery with the shadows. Director Bryan Bertino definitely wanted to add some nice visuals and plays on ambiguity to try to make the film disturbing.
To its credit, the performance by Liv Tyler was quite good and she managed to show a lot of emotion. Scott Speedman had so little to work with, so I couldn't really say if his performance was bad or not. The "strained" romance thing does add some empathy to our characters. I was somewhat pleased that they weren't the usual happy couple. The film's cinematography is also quite atmospheric, although some elements looked too polished to really be claustrophobic. There were some intense moments that managed to give an unnerving feeling but the unsteady suspense just lost a lot of its "punch". The film is just based on clichés and idiocy, it is difficult to promote suspense when the build up is based on these formulas.
I do think this film would have done better without the "based on true events" gimmick. The "true events" thing will have to be met by realism and once you don't see that one defining factor, no matter how good the set-ups are, you may just fail. The film is supposed to be violent and disturbing, but for some reason, it felt oddly "tame" and irrelevant. Bertino's attempts for suspense relied too much on cheap scares and spooky sound effects. The director ends up relying on overused genre mechanics that overstays its welcome.
For a film supposedly based on "true" events, "The Strangers" just falls flat. It even lacked the original's disturbing finale. The film would have been better off billed as a "slasher" flick than an involving horror drama that supposedly hits closer to home.
The dvd's unrated version clocks in 87 minutes while the theatrical version is at 85 minutes. Both versions are in the dvd. The extra two minutes of running time is on James' additional seconds of shooting and Kristen drags herself on the floor, for more of a "tormented" effect.
RENTAL [2 ½ Stars]
About The Strangers detail
- Amazon Sales Rank: #43 in DVD
- Released on: 2008-10-21
- Rating: R (Restricted)
- Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
- Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Original language: English
- Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
- Dubbed in: French, Spanish
- Number of discs: 1
- Running time: 174 minutes
The Strangers Description
Inspired by true events, this heart pounding, nail-biting frightener mercilessly explores our most universal fears, where simply opening the door to a stranger leads to a grueling night of terror one could never imagine. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman star in this relentless suspense thriller that will keep you up at night and make you never want to answer the door again!
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