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!
A lean, briskly paced and exceptionally creepy thriller, The Strangers earns its scares the old-fashioned way: through atmosphere, sound design, and a simple yet undeniably upsetting central premise that allows for maximum tension throughout its running time. Attractive young lovers Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are already having a bad day--she's turned down his marriage proposal--before a knock on the door in the middle of the night announces a full-fledged siege on their remote vacation home by a trio of masked assailants. The film's first third delivers the most consistent shivers as the visitors make their presence and intentions known to Tyler; the second half grows more frantic and bloody before a gruesome finale that may leave viewers either rattled to their core or bothered by its empty nihilism. Speedman is fine as the downtrodden male lead (who's seen tucking into a carton of ice cream after being rejected), but it's Tyler who impresses the most by shouldering the lion's share of the terror. First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino impresses by forsaking the current passion for over-the-top violence (save for the finale) in favor of more traditional means of generating fear, and if his project borrows heavily from other films, most notably the French chiller Them (which shares its "inspired by a true story" origin) and Michael Haneke's Funny Games, at least he's taking from the best. The sound design is among the many technical standouts, and the unsettling score by tomandandy (The Hills Have Eyes) pleasantly evokes Ennio Morricone's fuzztone-heavy work for Dario Argento in the early '70s. On a completely unrelated note, LP fanatics should appreciate how both the film's heroes and villains share an affinity for folk and country music on vinyl. --Paul Gaita
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
TERROR - Without too much gore:
Terrifying movie with some real surprises. Relies more on suspense than on gore (although this is not a movie for the squeamish). Certainly not perfect, but still a good rental if you don't over-analyze.
Not as Scary as I thought:
My husband and I saw the trailer for this movie and were hooked. We ordered it right away. We are horror film fanatics so we are not as easily scared as most. However, after the first 30 minutes we were like o.k. this really isnt that scary. It was more of a..oh gosh please dont go and do that type of movie. I think that the mask that they wore actually was the only thing that made this movie a little scary..any thiller junkie has seen this story play out thousands of times. So an o.k. thiller no Texas... more info
Don't Answer the Door at 4 A.M.:
This is a good little chiller--despite giant holes in the plot and a heroine who is so helpless and fragile that she should be in a nursing home. The story is a classic setting for fear and mayhem: an isolated house out in the woods where a couple is terrorized by mysterious forces. The first time you hear the sudden knocking on the door, you experience a sense of dread. Not many people have a visitor knocking on their door at 3 or 4 in the morning. When the visitor turns out to be a total stranger,... more info
True Events Are Scary, But Film Adaptation Falls A Bit Flat:
I think that the "scariness" factor of this film is the fact that its events were based on a true life scenario. While coming home late from a party one night, a man and his fiancee are terrorized by three people wearing various masks. That scenario, I will admit, is pretty spooky...the idea that someone is stalking you within your own home is truly horrifying. However, in film format, the story falls a bit flat for two reasons: First off, there really aren't any big "jump moments" (at least ones... more info
