No, this isn't a movie about the reach around...unfortunately. Fortunately, it is a thriller that was unceremoniously and for some reason released in the summer, right "Indiana Jones and the Frolicking Space Helmets" and the new "Hulk" movie...I hope writer/director Bryan Bertino (not to be confused with Brian Boitano) doesn't have to deal with such blockbuster sandwich orgies again...that's too many meals in too little time.

Anyway, on to the review. The set up is very similar to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", in that the film claims this is "based on true events" and you also get the ending pretty much ruined right from the start. These two people you're about to spend the next hour and a half with...are doomed.

Unlike "The Blair Witch Project", they didn't film anything. They were too busy with other problems--see, the lead male, Jim, tried to propose to his girlfriend, played by Liv Tyler, and she didn't accept. Burn. And that's how we start this little fairy tale that is "The Strangers". It's not totally a breakup, but there are awkward moments shared by the two lead characters as they walk around Jim's parents house (with the assumption the parents either are dead or moved down to Florida and left him the house...or are away on a vacation to an old people's vacation spot, like a cruise). The reason it's awkward is because Jim decided to go the cliche route of proposing and litter the entire house with rose petals.

Ouch. But that's the kind of ouch the two of them would have preferred to what's ABOUT to happen to them.

After Jim calls his bud (Stinkfinger the Crow will LOVE who the friend is) and asks him to pick him up, take him home...even though it's 4 in the morning and they're in the middle of nowhere...he goes to eat some cream and tries to give the engagement ring to his girlfriend anyway, just saying "keep it anyway". This is a bit inexplicable, because typically you just return the ring and get the money back, right? And it's not entirely clear if they're still together, but they do try to make some lovin--

Then there's a KNOCK at the door. For the next hour, these two are thrown into probably one of the most intensely thrilling sequences I've seen in years. Bertino shows he is beyond amateur at directing--but he hasn't quite mastered screenwriting. The film dodges some questions character wise and plot wise that would have made these two characters even more endearing, and the scenario would have possibly been more credibly set up if we knew...WHY he wanted to leave HER at the house when it was technically HIS. Anyway, the ending is a bit anti-climactic, however it is a bit heartbreaking as well.

The best part of this film is exactly what you'd think would be horrible--that you know what's going to happen from the beginning. Yet I was still captivated, and still hoping that the inevitable wouldn't happen. Through all of the schemes they try to get out of their doomed situation, you're still rooting for them and wanting them to survive.

All in all, this is definitely a movie to take a date to, and give her a Stranger yourself when it's done...just don't wear a mask when you do it--she may put a knife in your face.

out of

I have been intrigued by the previews and am looking forward to seeing this movie. It actually got some very good reviews on metacritic, although it garnered some horrible ones as well.

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TM - i will say, the last scene is pretty trite and unnecessary--but there are some scenes that are outstandingly shot. there are a few kitschy, gimmicky "tension builders" but there is also the natural build up of suspense.

the scenes of the masked strangers just simply staring at the victims are absolutely chilling--reminded me of "halloween" a bit.

I prefer Strangers with Candy

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I have very little use for "Why is Mac so Angry?"- My Bitch(Mr. Reason)

A stranger isn't a reach around. It is when you cut off circulation to one of your hands to the point where it loses sensation and then take care of business. Since you have no feeling in the hand it feels like someone else is performing the act.

thanks for that dolphin--i was wondering if i got that right...it's been a while since i have read all those slang terms. i need to brush up and do my job a lot better.

That's a fair review.

There were some major suspension of disbelief problems with the story line. They were more annoying than critical.

First they start the movie with the quote about "the FBI has reported that there are X number of violent crimes in the U.S." Is that supposed to be some kind of frightening foreshadowing because I could swear that 75% of those crimes occur in major urban areas with a good portion of those being between people who know each other. Not that this is a problem, it just has nothing to do with the movie.

Then, they get to the house at 4 am. She takes a bath, he goes out for smokes, there is a drawn out period of scaring and...it is still the dead of night. I've walked out of bars after 4 am with birds chirping and the new day dawning but they are living in a state of perpetual darkness it seems.

The 4 am is also annoying because this group was presumably out to kill that night and had no intended target. Are you telling me that waited to near daybreak (in the normal world at least) before they finally came upon their victims? Then at 4 am they were lucky enough to finally come upon someone in a house that is empty under normal circumstances. This made the whole randomness of the crime less believable.

The cell phones. Am I correct in thinking the movie said this happened sometime in the 80's? Everything in the house was from that period or older. But the cell phones are all of recent vintage.

A shot gun at close range would have undoubtedly maimed, if not killed the person at the door. These were not bullets. He did not have to have a direct hit. Simply being in the general area would have resulted in damage. It would not even have hurt the movie if the couple was able to pick off one of the killers.

I decided to see the French movie, Roman de Gare, instead of The Strangers this weekend. The film adopts the veneer of a thriller by playing up certain "Hitchockian" storytelling conventions, but is really a social comedy which uses the idea of "plots" or "conspiracies" to celebrate the power of self-reinvention in the face of suffocating social constraints. It is a very good film, one of my favorites so far this year.

Sunday night I rented another French movie, Them, which is credited with inspiring The Strangers, although my understanding is that it's supposed to be better than that film. If this film is, indeed, an improvement over its American counterpart, then I have no interest in seeing The Strangers. While Them managed to sustain a suspenseful atmosphere throughout, it is ultimately devoid of any substance and culminates in a completely unrewarding climax.

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That's what she said.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I saw that coming.

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I did not think there were any survivors at the start of the movie. As the end approached, I wondered who made the call, but I did not think there were survivors.

It was a good, but not great movie. I thought it was interesting how the director did the opposite of many great horror films, he increased the open space to increase the supsense (in Halloween they move from outside to eventually a small closet where here they moved from inside to outside). It had a different effect as you had no idea where the danger was going to come from.

I thought they did any expert job at borrowing from Blair Witch to scare. The knocking on windows, scraping outdoor furniture, running weapons across corrugated metal all had the same effect as the tent scene in Blair Witch. It was scary.

The music on the record player was excellent as well. Who would have that kind of music in their secluded lake house? I get the creeps just replaying one of the songs in my mind.

The masks made the killers frightening. There was no need to remove them, even if the viewer never saw the faces. I also thought it was unnecessary for them to say "it gets easier" at the end. Making it a random act is part of the fear. Providing ANY explanation makes it less frightening. It's like not explaining why they asked if Tamara was home. I still have that in my head and it creeps me out wondering the significance of Tamara.

By the way, the coming attraction for Quarantine looked good.

Also, when you start to get me going with Liv Tyler having her panties pulled off, save the knock until I actually see a little skin, it makes the movie better for all of us.

i agree, GD--i believe this was bertino's debut. you've pointed out some of his rookie mistakes, as did i, and that's the unnecessary "fat" that, had it been trimmed off in the final cut, would have made the movie more effective.

less is more.

the time of the night, i agree, was an odd choice--but i believe this is supposed to take place sometime in the fall, so i don't believe the sun would be coming out until later in the morning. liv tyler's character mentions a few times how cold it is outside.

i didn't like that the killers took off their masks at all. it was unnecessary and since they didn't show us their faces anyway there was no need to "humanize" them.

the movie takes place in 2005, not the 80's. this is the full text:

The film you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend's wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known.

As an aside, haven't we learned that "inspired by true events" means, "not even remotely related to what actually occured".

Also, if she lived, how are the events not known?

heh, well it's a funny expression to me because 99% of fiction is "inspired by true events".