Few things are as scary as the idea that someone could break into your home and terrorize you. The Strangers strains mightily to tap into that very common fear, and comes up short on nearly every count.
Recent French-language genre pictures Them (Ils) and Inside (À l'intérieur) took the basic premise of a frightening home invasion and spun it into very different yet disturbing visions. The Strangers relies too heavily on the idea itself, trusting that the audience will be paralyzed from the very thought that masked strangers might attack at random.
The film sets a certain expectation by claiming to be inspired by real life: "The horrifying events that took place in the Hoyt's family vacation home at 1801 Clark Road on February 11, 2005 are still not entirely known." (No city or state is cited.) A simple Google search turns up nothing, and the official site doesn't reveal any more information about the "true" circumstances, which might add a plaintive edge to the proceedings. But even if the story told on screen were exactly what happened in real life, it doesn't excuse the tired use of old tricks to try and juice the narrative.
Making his directorial debut, Bryan Bertino deserves credit for endeavoring to create a slow-paced, atmospheric thriller. The biggest problem is that all the pay-offs to the deliberate build-up are telegraphed well in advance of the action. I saw this with a full house at an advance promotional screening, and there were big screams at the first scare -- which I won't give away -- but then each time that same trick was subsequently used, the returns were diminished. There is simply no suspense when you know what's coming.
Likewise, everyone has a knee jerk reaction to an extremely loud sound combined with a musical cue; your body cannot stop from reacting, but when the scene goes nowhere the adrenaline levels quickly return to normal and the dramatic tension is completely dissipated. This is what we term a "cheap scare" and most of the "scares" in The Strangers are on that level.
As a writer, Bertino makes the fatal mistake of creating protagonists and villains who are not compelling. James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) has asked Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) to marry him and she turns him down (off-screen). They return to his family's vacation home, and instead of a romantic evening James calls his friend Mike to pick him up in the morning. James and Kristen spend some very quiet, awkward moments in the house and seem possibly on the edge of reconciliation when a loud thwacking KNOCK comes at the door. (It's a measure of the film's methodical rhythm that when James murmurs "It's late, it must be four o'clock," it's followed immediately by a shot of a clock showing the time as 4:05 a.m.)
James answers and finds a girl standing there, asking: "Is Tamara home?" After she leaves, James drives away to buy nicotine addict Kristen a pack of cigarettes. While he's gone, the mysterious girl returns, and the terror begins.
The attackers remain masked and completely unknown. It's not immediately apparent if they are mischievious or malicious; their actions make little sense. There is terror to be found in strangers attacking for no clear reason -- Kristen keeps asking, "Why are you doing this?!" -- but they spend a frustrating amount of time feinting, starting to attack and then pulling back, in a way that seems intended to draw out the running time rather than represent the actions of cold-hearted home invaders.
James and Kristen are a frustrating couple as well. They initially act well as a couple that's breaking up, but never really gain our sympathy. It's hard to believe they could have ever been in love, and they do just as many dumb things as any other couple in a suspense movie. If the intent was to portray James and Kristen as realistic victims of an unspeakable crime, then why insert so many cheap jump shots, and why so often show the audience things that the victims cannot see?
The Strangers could have been a frightening experience, or at least one that sent the audience home uneasy about the increasingly random nature of violence. Instead, it merely feels like another faux-tense tale that will only raise the anxiety level for audience members who rarely partake of any movie that might jangle their nerves.
The film is handsomely photographed by Peter Sova. The musical score by tomandandy is, sadly, not one of their more memorable efforts. Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, and Laura Margolis have the thankless roles of "the strangers."
Related Links
More from Strangers, The
- Reviews: THE STRANGERS
Bit thrown by this - I was sure 'The Strangers' WAS a remake of 'Ils'. Looking at imdb, it gives Bertino sole writing credit, and there's not mention of a connection except in its association with Roy Lee. Anyone know what happened? Wonder if the 'Ils' team wanted their name taken off it.
Thanks for the review. I'll just wait for DVD.*
*This comment is based on actual events.
sark!
LOL. that was almost a coffee-spitting moment there.
Link to that Chronicle interview:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:629431
Just got back from The Strangers. I dug it. issues like sound cues and telegraphing of some scenes are very, very minor gripes, the film easily overcomes these tiny weaknesses. Because I don't want to bother puttnig up a Third (!) review of this film here at Twitch, I'll just link to my 'extended thoughts' on the film which have been published over at www.rowthree.com here
I was hoping this film was gonna knock it outta the park but it appears like o
a fair amount of hype has pushed this film too much. I'm happy to see such varied reviews, all with awesome pros and cons. Thanks for the link Kurt. I think I'll lower my expectations and either wait for a rainy day...or a rainy dvd.
We take different critical approaches, Canfield, and that's one of the things I appreciate about writing for Twitch. I think that benefits our readership, which tends to be well educated in international cinema. It's a fine thing to write about the deeper subjects that films might provoke, beyond the film's own intrinsic quality, but in this case I did not feel THE STRANGERS merited that weight. It is, admittedly, better than woeful efforts like PROM NIGHT, ONE MISSED CALL (remake), or THE EYE (remake), but it did not drill into my psyche. Theoretically, you could write wonderful critical essays about any of these films -- the latter two films, especially, with their depictions of the deceptive dangers of personal technology and body integrity -- but I have not done so. Does that make me and/or my reviews fundamentally less mature and shallow than you and yours? Maybe so. Perhaps I'll consider this more carefully when I see THE FOOT FIST WAY and KUNG FU PANDA and try to engage those films on a deeper level.
Of course, any critical evaluation will be subjective, and highly personal; believe me, I am accustomed to being in the minority more often than not. I'd prefer to write an entirely positive review -- it's much easier for me to extol the virtues of a movie than point out its flaws -- but I feel it's even more important to explain why something did not "work" for me, and to wrestle with my own subjective view. Though I often encourage people to seek out a movie I really liked, I usually don't intend to discourage anyone from seeing anything. I've been writing about movies long enough to know that something that I think fails on every count will turn out to be someone else's favorite.
Evidently my review conveyed the idea that the film's lack of originality was what bothered me the most. If so, that's my failure as a writer. As you know, most movies are not true "originals," but the ones that are most successful, in my mind, are those that add fresh twists or new insights to material that may be well-known to the viewer; at minimum, they cause the viewer to think in different ways. I did not feel THE STRANGERS achieved any of these goals. Sorry: no dread for me. As always, your mileage may vary.
The hard thing to grasp is that films are enjoyed on a simple, basic level by the majority of viewers.
Put enough colour, explosions and vacant 'stars' in a production and you're almost there.
Now, I'm not saying that the readersjip of Twitch are above this, I'm sure we all have our guilty pleasures or safe films [return of the living dead part 2] but I think reviews are much like films...personal.
If I want a deep, thoughtful review about the balance of social calm VS natural motives...I'll try and find one but more often than not...the films I watch just don't merit it...even thouh some/ most Japanese films are very thought provoking.
Twitch gives a great many varied opinions such as with this film and I think it's invaluable...and sometimes funny as hell.
Add some ninjas and you're away.
Peter
Great thought through response. I really feel like you tackled my post. It's so hard these days to find someone who will enter in and dialogue. Of copurse I'm not surprised having read a lot of your stuff. BTW in no way did I think your take on The Strangers was immature. Your comment about Kung Fu Panda and Foot Fist Way gave me a big smile and a chuckle this morning.
We ALL suffer under the weight of our perspective and the need to wrestle with it and our reactions to the culture around us not least in part because deep down we know we don't have final answers to a lot of the questions raised by the culture we consume, and the state of the world around us. Wrestling with our own reactions is a big part of what any critic does. Really in many ways its exactly what I do as well. I just feel compelled to ask slightly different questions. There's no moral state of excellence implied by that.
One of the things I write about from my perspective is the way that people demonize "entertainment." My library is FULL of guilty pleasures. As always happy to be part of the team and dialogue.