The Strangers

Rating R Genre horror Starring Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton Directed by Bryan Bertino Publisher Rogue Pictures External Links The Strangers Website

The biggest problem that I had with The Strangers was the undeniable fact that it had the potential to be a solid horror flick. The story of a young couple spending the night at a lake house in the middle of nowhere which takes a turn for the worst when they suddenly are being stalked by three unknown, doll-masked strangers sounds awfully cliché but, at the same time, promising as a fun-filled scare fest. The final product was indeed cliché, but fails to deliver any long-lasting scares. Add in the lack of story, character development and dialogue, and you have a potentially good film gone terribly sour.

The film wastes no time building the suspense from the opening scene. Two boys stumble upon the gruesome aftermath of what will make up the next hour and a half of the story. We are then flashed back to the previous night where we see our young couple, Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) arriving at the desolate lake house in the middle of a forest. We quickly learn that, before they had arrived at the house, they had attended a wedding which ended in disappointment after Kristen turns down James’s marriage proposal. And that is the last we hear about the back story for the remaining 80 minutes of the movie.

Within ten minutes of being in the house, there is an unexpected knock on the door, despite the fact that it’s around 4:00 a.m. At the door is a strange girl asking if Tamara is home. Once she is told that she must have the wrong house, the expected starts. More knocks on the door, broken windows, cut phone lines, and strangers wearing doll masks. And from this point, you can pretty much paint a mental picture for how the rest of the movie will pan out.



I wanted to put most of the blame for the demise of this film on first-time director Bryan Bertino, but quickly realized that the problem wasn’t so much with the direction, but more so with the script - or lack thereof. Fit in between Tyler’s screams, overly long and tedious suspense builder scenes, and the unintelligent survival decisions made by the protagonists, are a few lines of wooden dialogue that serve no purpose throughout the movie. I guess it doesn’t help that the poor attempt at trying to tell a back story is almost completely forgotten about within 30 minutes of the film.

The Strangers does succeed, however, in delivering multiple scenes that will send you flying out of your seat. But once you’re back in it, the boredom sets back in until the next loud noise makes you jump. Other than the short shocker moments, there are no scenes that truly scare or mess with the mind. The film basically turns into a game to see where the stalkers pop out and disappear from next.

I also could not understand just who these “stalkers” were supposed to be. From what we are shown, they consist of two young girls and a slightly older guy. They have typical stalker-like weaponry that consists of knives and an axe. But these are no ordinary house stalkers. These particular stalkers have stealth-like tactics that allow them to appear and disappear within a few seconds without a sound or trace. So we are now dealing with ninja stalkers who turn out to not even have a motive for their behavior. Something new and exciting? Try silly and unrealistic, especially for a movie that is supposed to be based on true events.

Everything, of course, leads up to the shocking last 5 minutes of the movie, which really isn’t all that shocking. It’s just what we all knew would happen but wished that it happened earlier to save us from the excessive filler scenes that push the limits of annoyance to a whole new level.