THE STRANGERS (2008)

Studio:       Universal Pictures
Director:    Bryan Bertino
Writer:       Bryan Bertino
Producer:  Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
Stars:     Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton

Review Score:

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Summary:

Three masked intruders terrorize a troubled young couple trapped inside their secluded vacation home.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

February 11, 2015 – At their friend’s wedding reception, Kristen McKay turns down her boyfriend James Hoyt’s marriage proposal, creating a rift in their relationship. The couple awkwardly returns to the Hoyt family’s remote summer home, where James had prepared to surprise Kristen with a romantic celebration. James leaves a voicemail for his friend Mike to come and get him.

A reflective conversation between James and Kristen leads to physical intimacy, but they are interrupted by a knock at the door. A blonde woman asks for Tamara. When James tells her she has the wrong house, the woman says, “see you later” and leaves.

James leaves to get cigarettes for Kristen. While Kristen is alone, the blonde woman returns to ask for Tamara again. Frightened, Kristen calls James but the landline goes dead.

A man in a cloth mask, a woman in a Pin-Up Girl mask, and the blonde woman, now wearing a Dollface mask, begin terrorizing Kristen by making startling sounds and infiltrating the house.

James returns. Initially disbelieving Kristen’s claim that someone was in the house, James sees Dollface watching he and Kristen from outside. James goes out to his car to retrieve his phone. He finds the vehicle’s windows smashed and its tires slashed. Someone touches James before running away.

James goes back inside to collect Kristen. The two of them try driving away in the damaged car, but are rammed by a pickup truck driven by Pin-Up Girl, forcing them to rush back inside.

James retrieves a shotgun and fires at the door when the intruders try breaking it down. James and Kristen hide in another room.

Mike arrives at the house and investigates the strange scene. Although the Man in the Mask stalks him from behind, Mike ends up shot by James when James mistakes him for an attacker.

James goes out to the shed to call for help on an old radio, but gets captured. Kristen goes to the shed to look for James and to try using the radio, but ultimately ends up back inside the house after more encounters with the intruders.

The power goes out. Kristen tries hiding in a closet, but eventually gets captured as well.

Kristen and James wake in daylight to find themselves restrained to chairs. The three masked intruders stand in front of them. Kristen asks, “why are you doing this to us?” Dollface responds, “because you were home.” The intruders unmask themselves. The man stabs James to death. The blonde woman stabs Kristen.

When Kristen recovers, she sees the man leave her for dead. The intruders drive away in their pickup truck. They briefly stop in the street so that the blonde woman can ask two Mormon boys on bicycles for a religious pamphlet.

The two boys find the bloody scene at the house. Kristen is still alive. One of the boys frantically calls 911.

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Review:

Horror film concepts don’t come much simpler, or scarier, than writer/director Bryan Bertino’s “The Strangers.”  Alone in the dead of night inside a secluded house, Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) find themselves trapped and terrified by three masked intruders.  Why?  Because they were home.  Although that setup seems lean, what the movie lacks in story it more than makes up for in strong cinematic suspense.

Bertino does a great deal in under two minutes to set the stage before even getting into the plot.  An imposing voice’s opening narration of quickly forgotten statistics and “based on true events” claims* initially appears superfluous.  Yet it echoes the John Larroquette voiceover that begins “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” seating mood in a similar feeling of fact and fantasy blending together in an uncomfortably frightful way.

*If you’re still in the dark regarding what those “true events” are, know that they refer mainly to a childhood experience of Bertino’s where thieves knocked on neighborhood doors under the guise of looking for a friend.  In reality, they wanted to find unoccupied houses to rob.  Bertino also cites inspiration from wondering what the experience must have been like for victims of the Tate-LaBianca murders, who had no idea who the Manson Family was or what they were doing in their homes.  Claims that “The Strangers” based its premise on the 1981 Keddie Murders in Cabin 28, or any other actual occurrence, are unfounded.  Hence the thin line delineation between “true story” and “true events.”

The movie next moves to a montage of suburban homes accompanied by audio of a car engine.  Never mind outward appearances.  There is nothing unnecessary about this sequence either.  The ominous implications underneath such sights and sounds are clear.  You have no idea who passes by outside your windows on a regular basis, or what they might be plotting.  This could happen anywhere, to anyone.  This could happen to you.

Successful thrillers, the ones that garner the most universal acclaim, often share the ability to tap into a commonly experienced fear.  With “The Strangers,” it’s the fear of being home alone, vulnerable inside a familiar location normally associated with comfort.  Who hasn’t heard a creak on an upstairs floorboard or seen a fleeting shadow pass a window and wondered what worse thing could come next?  “The Strangers” bottles those “what ifs” that have wandered through the darkest corners of everyone’s minds and gives them tangible shape in horror film form.  Seeing this scenario play out while feeling as helpless as the victims onscreen is every bit as harrowing as the imagination always assumed it would be.

Material in the movie unrelated to the intruders is also satisfyingly dramatic, albeit in a different manner.  We are introduced to Kristen and James sitting at a stoplight.  James looks down dejected.  A tear streaks Kristen’s cheek.  Well before a flashback fills in the blanks, details collectively compose their complete backstory, which continues when they first arrive at the house.

It takes truly talented actors to breathe life into these people, and that is exactly what Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman do.  Kristen and James aren’t pincushions placed in the plot only to react to the strangers’ actions, even though they easily could be.  With a script slim on dialogue, Tyler and Speedman speak with silence and body language, tethering the audience to them through a precise amount of unspoken emotion, chemistry, and characterization.

The masked intruders similarly use silence to deliberately frustrate as antagonists.  Their stoic stature establishes sinister strength through callous confidence.  Empty-expression masks with only the slightest hint of personality are unnervingly haunting.  Rarely have faceless villains been this distinctively disturbing by intentionally not having identities.

“The Strangers” efficiently breezes through its nerve-rattling chills with economy, yet without shortchanging substance.  Scenes somewhat struggle to find new scenarios for challenging Kristen and James though.  A closed chimney flue setting off a smoke detector to set up a subtle spook, and several stop and stare sequences too, work more to stretch the runtime than really ratchet tension.  Yet nothing runs out of the realm of realism.  There aren’t any manufactured moments of precarious ledge dangling or “why would they do that?” implausibilities.  Keeping the ordeal grounded heightens how scarily relatable everything unfortunately is.

I could get into other hangnails like a handheld camera whose determination to deliver a “Friday Night Lights” feel becomes distracting.  But overall, “The Strangers” stands out as an unforgettable example of effective dread created from minimalist components.  It is simply the standard by which all home invasion films must be measured in terms of resonant sensation and imagination infection.  If you can’t do it better than this, don’t even try.

Review Score:  85

Click here for Culture Crypt's review of the sequel, "The Strangers: Prey at Night."

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