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| The Strangers Movie Review |
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| POSTED Friday , May 30, 2008 01:08:56 PM |
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Plot:A young couple cozied up in a vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.
Cast:Scott Speedman, Kip Weeks, Glenn Howerton, Laura Margolis, Liv Tyler, Gemma Ward.
My Thoughts:Hmmm.....pleasan
t surprise?
Review:With a flashy yet subtle yet terrifying ad campaign, "The Strangers" basically set up a simple visual for it's target audience. A good-looking couple at a remote lodge, looking forward to a romantic weekend when - three masked figures, two women, and a man show up, and decide to psychologically and physically torture the duo. The film is supposedly based off of true events, which in reality is true....well, sort of. The movie is based on a home invasion/murder which occured in 1981 in California, where four people were found brutally murdered at a remote cabin in the hills of Northern California.
The incident soon became known as the "Keddie Cabin Murders". That's pretty much all the connection this film has to the actual events themselves. There's no evidence of the sex, number, or attire of the killers. This film plays all of that up through writer/director Bryan Bertino's own imagination. He decides to give us three killers to identify with...a creepy blonde, a creepy brunette, and a tall dude with a sack mask of sorts. Each stranger sports a mask in line with their overall look and hair color. The thing to like about Bertino's film is that he gets to the good stuff in a fairly decent amount of time.
Even when James and Kristen Hoyt (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler), first pull up at their remote mountain cabin, which belongs to James' father...the atmosphere around the cabin, which is really the definition of "remote", and "woodsy"...we get an unsettling feeling about everything, and a very bad feleing that this is just the calm before the storm. You just know from the outset of the film that this will not turn out good. Soon after the couple arrives from a wedding reception, the strangers set their wicked, mayhemic plan into motion. A series of terrifying events which begin with a creepy, dense, knock at the door of the couples lodge, followed by a woman shrouded in darkness, asking the couple if a woman lives at the cabin.
Kristen and James simply dismiss the incident as the woman having the wrong house, and as a simple mistake...but we the viewers know better. Bertino really creates three great villains in this film, and best of all...all three are very realistic. They don't strike right away, but rather methodically stalk the duo, mostly Kristen who is left alone for a few moments after James leaves the lodge for a bit. The group of killers, even when Kristen is alone...don't charge right in after her. They could, but they don't. Instead, they decide to push her mentally to the brink of sheer terror and fear.
Bertino's villains are scary in many different ways. Ways beyond their methods and attitudes. The trio are very quiet, rarely speak, sport three very eerie masks, and probably play the "now you see them, now you don't" game better than most horror villains I've ever seen. These three could give Michael Myers a run for his money in the category of "disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye". This makes it very easy for the viewer to feel a sense of dread for Speedman and Tyler's characters. They're not only outnumbered, but also mentally outmatched. While the strangers continue to play more and more twisted games with the couple, in and out of the house...the psyche of James and Kristen seems to break down more and more by the moment.
Making it easy for the trio to further spook them whenever they choose to do so. Sure there are times when the couple tries to fight back, but Bertino keeps these moments in a full spotlight of realism, and really puts them in the perspective of something you or I would do, instead of something you'd see in a Jet Li movie where all of a sudden, someone knows kung fu, or gains amazing fighting abilities to beat back their attackers. While Bertino puts the will to live of his couple on display from time to time, he clearly at the same time keeps them deeply in peril, and the villains for the most part....are in total control of the situation from beginning to end.
This is one of those horror films which plays out exactly how horror movies like this should, and manages to do it without splashing buckets of blood all over the place. But rather using real terror and real fear to mind-game it's audience. While it may not be enough to scare the hardcore horror film fan such as myself and others, it certainly will get your hands tingling with adrenaline. You as a viewer really see James and Kristen as your every day couple, and really see the killers as your typical edge-of-town kooks who prey on those who visit remote territory from out of town, for the peace and serenity it has to offer. There's no leaping outside the borders of reality with "The Strangers"....everything plays out like a real-life horror drama, in a very classical, terrifying, and humanesque manner.
Speedman and Tyler's exceptional performances in the clutches of peril make the movie in full, as does Ward, Weeks, and Margolis' performances as the strangers themselves. Seeing the couple go up against these three murderous villains produces some very tense, intense, and shocking moments which fill up the movies 90 minute run time really well, and produce a very shocking and graphic climax which should make most horror fans happy considering the fact that it sharply strays far from the norm and takes a "challenging" approach to the standard horror movie ending. "The Strangers" is a pleasant surprise to come out of the month of May, which is not known for producing the best our genre has to offer. If there's one horror film, one "real" horror film you see this summer, it should be "The Strangers".
Positives:Very atmospheric, good performances by all involved, interesting, creepy, and sadistic killers, and alot of intense, drama-filled scenes. A strong script filled with real scares.
Negatives:Nothing major.
Overall:Great picture!
Review by Mr. HoRrOr at
Horror Movies &stuff.com
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 Edit  Reply w/quote |
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| REPLIED Saturday, May 31, 2008 09:12:52 PM |
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