The Strangers «½
R, 90m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Scott Speedman (James Hoyt), Liv Tyler (Kristen McKay), Gemma Ward (Dollface), Kip Weeks (The Man in the Mask), Laura Margolis (Pin-Up Girl), Glenn Howerton (Mike), Alex Fisher (Mormon Boy #1), Peter Clayton-Luce (Mormon Boy #2). Written and directed by Bryan Bertino.
Last December, I heard a tragic news story about an elderly woman who, on a Sunday night, was at home with her husband. Upon checking to see who rang the doorbell, the woman was shot and killed by an unknown assailant the moment she opened the door. Other than being a random case of homicide, there was no other evidence that whoever killed the woman had been planning a home robbery.
It was just another random senseless killing or home invasion which is what "The Strangers" is all about. The film opens with a brief narration from an unseen person who talks about how millions of such deadly home invasions like the one seen in this film take place throughout America and how this particular case is based on a true story.
If the script written by director Brian Bertino made me want to care about the young couple played by Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler who are terrorized by some young masked psycho thrill killers, I would have exhibited some anger towards the ones causing their predicament and hold out some hope for these doomed lovers.
Trouble is we don’t know too much about them except that both Speedman and Tyler are boyfriend and girlfriend. At a dinner party, Speedman proposes to Tyler to marry her and for reasons we don't quite learn, turns him down. He takes her to his parents beautiful but isolated suburban home where he already had a romantic evening planned.
As the two are about ready to settle down for the night, the doorbell rings. A young girl asks them “Is Tyler there?” Speedman tells her she has the wrong house and she leaves. Then he goes off to the store to get some cigarettes leaving Tyler alone for a few minutes while she stays warm in front of the fireplace.
Then the doorbell rings again and “the Stranger” asks the same question when Tyler asks who it is. What follows is routine. Tyler gets scared when the person refuses to leave, continuing to bang more loudly on the front door. She grabs a knife to protect herself and then predictably walks towards some closed curtains. If this same type of filmmaking exercise were not repeated in most every other predictable so-called suspense film (i.e. young woman left alone inside empty house being terrorized by unseen assailants), I might have jumped the minute Tyler opens up the curtains to see a masked stranger staring at back her.
Trouble is I already knew who was out there lurking about thanks to the film’s trailer. Speedman eventually arrives though at first refuses to believe Tyler that someone is watching them.
When Speedman's pal (Glenn Howerton) stops by the house to pick him up, I'd have said to myself telling him to look behind him as he is walking throughout the house trying to figure out what’s happening. I already knew, however, he was going to be the next victim one way or the other.
Which brings me to the question of why is all this happening to the young couple? That question is asked in the film’s only creepiest sequence uttered in a scene from the trailer.
When Tyler asks the masked strangers why are they terrorizing them, a masked young teenager says, “Because you were home.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the kind of answer such cold-blooded killers tell detectives during their investigations as to finding out what their motive was. It was probably the answer that assailant told detectives as to why he or she shot that elderly woman who all she was doing was answering the door to see who it was.
The Strangers is not a thriller. It’s not even a horror movie despite the one poster I have seen showing the three masked killers. It’s just one example among those millions of deadly home invasions the narrator said in the beginning that occur for no real reason other than the fact it happened all because the residents were home.
©6/3/08
R, 90m. 2008
Cast & Credits: Scott Speedman (James Hoyt), Liv Tyler (Kristen McKay), Gemma Ward (Dollface), Kip Weeks (The Man in the Mask), Laura Margolis (Pin-Up Girl), Glenn Howerton (Mike), Alex Fisher (Mormon Boy #1), Peter Clayton-Luce (Mormon Boy #2). Written and directed by Bryan Bertino.
It was just another random senseless killing or home invasion which is what "The Strangers" is all about. The film opens with a brief narration from an unseen person who talks about how millions of such deadly home invasions like the one seen in this film take place throughout America and how this particular case is based on a true story.
If the script written by director Brian Bertino made me want to care about the young couple played by Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler who are terrorized by some young masked psycho thrill killers, I would have exhibited some anger towards the ones causing their predicament and hold out some hope for these doomed lovers.
Trouble is we don’t know too much about them except that both Speedman and Tyler are boyfriend and girlfriend. At a dinner party, Speedman proposes to Tyler to marry her and for reasons we don't quite learn, turns him down. He takes her to his parents beautiful but isolated suburban home where he already had a romantic evening planned.
As the two are about ready to settle down for the night, the doorbell rings. A young girl asks them “Is Tyler there?” Speedman tells her she has the wrong house and she leaves. Then he goes off to the store to get some cigarettes leaving Tyler alone for a few minutes while she stays warm in front of the fireplace.
Then the doorbell rings again and “the Stranger” asks the same question when Tyler asks who it is. What follows is routine. Tyler gets scared when the person refuses to leave, continuing to bang more loudly on the front door. She grabs a knife to protect herself and then predictably walks towards some closed curtains. If this same type of filmmaking exercise were not repeated in most every other predictable so-called suspense film (i.e. young woman left alone inside empty house being terrorized by unseen assailants), I might have jumped the minute Tyler opens up the curtains to see a masked stranger staring at back her.
Trouble is I already knew who was out there lurking about thanks to the film’s trailer. Speedman eventually arrives though at first refuses to believe Tyler that someone is watching them.
When Speedman's pal (Glenn Howerton) stops by the house to pick him up, I'd have said to myself telling him to look behind him as he is walking throughout the house trying to figure out what’s happening. I already knew, however, he was going to be the next victim one way or the other.
Which brings me to the question of why is all this happening to the young couple? That question is asked in the film’s only creepiest sequence uttered in a scene from the trailer.
When Tyler asks the masked strangers why are they terrorizing them, a masked young teenager says, “Because you were home.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the kind of answer such cold-blooded killers tell detectives during their investigations as to finding out what their motive was. It was probably the answer that assailant told detectives as to why he or she shot that elderly woman who all she was doing was answering the door to see who it was.
The Strangers is not a thriller. It’s not even a horror movie despite the one poster I have seen showing the three masked killers. It’s just one example among those millions of deadly home invasions the narrator said in the beginning that occur for no real reason other than the fact it happened all because the residents were home.
©6/3/08
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