The Strangers (2008)
This week I revisited an old favorite
The Strangers, written and Directed by Bryan Bertino. Re-watching this flick for the first time in
a couple years, I was reminded why I liked it so much. Even a couple problems I originally had with
this film were cleared up. I would put
this movie in the Terror genre as it masterfully blends slow building suspense
with sudden pop out scares.
THE PLOT
Young couple Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman)
return to an isolated family summer home after attending a friend’s wedding. Kristen is visibly cold and unaffectionate
towards James, who himself appears to be in an utter funk. We later learn that James decided to pop the big
question to Kristen right after the wedding (a dick move if you ask me, talk
about stealing your friends thunder).
Their emotional disconnection and James getting deep into a gallon of
Blue Bell ice cream allow you to draw your own conclusion as to how that
conversation ended. The awkwardness
builds as they enter the bedroom, where pre-emptively placed rose pedals are
strewn all about. Suddenly there is a
knock on the door, which is odd considering it’s nearing 4 in the morning. The strange young girl at the door asks for
someone who is not home then promptly disappears into the night. This will not be the last we see of her, she
is one of the ‘Strangers’. Later in the
evening the strange girl returns with two masked compadres, who grow increasingly
more violent in their attempts to get into the house. Kristen finds objects in the house to be
moved and her phone is missing, revealing the most terrifying thing imaginable
in this situation. The strangers have
already found a way into the house.
MY TAKE
The reason that I find this movie so terrifying is simply how
grounded it is in reality. There are no
really unbelievable scenes in this film that the horror/terror genre is
notorious for. The characters react
fairly normally to the circumstances they are presented with (I mean normally
as in they aren’t doing anything that makes you stand up and yell “what the
fuck are you doing!” at your TV). They
are terrified and simply want to survive to see daylight. The ‘Strangers’ aren’t typical horror
villains either, they are far stealthier than prototypical large goonish
villains that so often appear in horror movies. There are several scenes where
they simply appear in the background and disappear, which serve to remind us
that they are always watching. The
strangers seem to prefer to play with their victims before they kill them,
allowing the film to build agonizingly suspenseful scenes, then capitalize on
them with selectively placed pop out scares. Even more effective than the pop out scares
are the occasional ones that let the suspense fizzle out, giving the audience a
false sense of security.
At first I couldn’t understand why Liv Tylers character is so
wooden and unlikable. It took about half
of the movie before I started to warm up to her and care whether she lived or
not. So she doesn’t want to get married,
she doesn’t have to be such a bitch about it.
After thinking about it though, I realised this is a clever way of
showing Kristen’s character development as she learns, through facing the worst
experience of her life, that she truly loves James. In the end she still manages to garner some
empathy from the audience.
One of the other things that makes this movie stand out from
other horror movies is the lack of expendable characters. There are two main characters in this film
and that’s it. The next three most
prominent characters are all villains.
The fact that the main characters are the only ones in the house limits
the amount of death and gore scenes that the audience would typically go into a
movie like this expecting, but allows for more in depth character development
by focusing exclusively on the two characters we have. This tactic makes the audience become more
emotionally invested in the characters and tricks us into caring about
them. I found that it really worked in
this film and, again, it limited the amount of stupid, life threatening
decisions the characters can make, giving us more grounds to relate to the
characters and secretly hope for them to make it out alive.
The thing I like most about this movie is the slowly
escalating sense of danger Kristen and James are presented with. First there are noises outside the house,
then some objects around the house get moved without their knowledge. At one point early in the film, Kristen has
the opportunity to call for help, but she wastes it by calling James to tell
him how scared she is while he is out to buying cigarettes.
 |
| Bitch didn't even put the ice cream away |
Maybe calling the cops
would be a bit extreme but after the phones go missing, that is no longer an
option. Suddenly the noises are coming
from inside the house. Kristen and James
decide it is best to leave the house but they come to discover that their car
is smashed, when only a few minutes prior, James took the car out to buy
cigarettes. The ‘strangers’ skillfully
and slowly limit Kristen and James possible ways of escaping, like a python
choking out a pig. There lies the true
horror of this movie. So enjoy yourself
next time you take a date out to your parent’s cabin for the night, and
remember, if a stranger knocks, you should probably just turn out the lights
and hide under the bed.
The Verdict
Why this movie isn’t on everyone’s
top scary movies list is beyond me. I
believe this film to be highly underrated for the quality of scares and sense
of unease it delivers. It even succeeds
where most horror films fail, in that they didn’t fuck up the ending. It’s no Titanic or Shawshank Redemption as far
as writing, story and character development go, but it ultimately achieves what
it set out to do, scare the shit out of people.
This flick is definitely worth a watch.
7.9/10
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