The Strangers
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
The Strangers takes a while to get started, but viewers that aren’t expecting anything groundbreaking might encounter a few worthwhile moments with just a little patience. The story unfolds somewhere between ‘sloth’ and ‘glacier’ on the speed scale and instead of real characterization we get to piece together the events of the evening that occurred before we meet the main characters. Once things get going, however, it’s probably better that we aren’t too attached to them.
Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) leave a wedding and plan to spend the night in a secluded cabin in the woods. Their plans change when a strange girl shows up and soon enough they encounter the strangers. The premise is not too complex or original, but it doesn’t feel like material you’ve seen a dozen times…even though Bryan Bertino is a first-time writer/director.
This film is very minimalist and the suspense builds in a mostly believable way. We get the typical horror movie bath scene (but no gratuitous nudity… what’s up with that?) and the totally played-out chase through the woods, but during most of the movie the characters act in a semi-intelligent manner. A later scene with a friend is unfortunately predictable and we really, really didn’t need another sprained ankle, but the scares were almost completely unexpected and more effective than anything else I’ve seen in a while.
- Score
- 6/10
Regrettably, in less than two seconds, the last moment utterly ruins the overall effect of the movie and definitely should have been left out. Because of spoilerization I won’t share it here, but trust me when I say that my final scene would have been much, much more disturbing, and, for that reason, probably never would have made the theatrical cut. Sigh. Hopefully there will be some kind of alternate ending on the DVD.
