06.13.08
The Strangers
When I saw the trailer (btw, don’t click past the trailer on the official site, because there are spoilers galore) for The Strangers (which, if I recall correctly, was played before Baby Mama for some reason) it was seriously one of the scariest trailers I have ever seen. I was so scared, that my moviegoing companion actually said “I…I can’t tell if you’re kidding…” But I wasn’t kidding. So, needless to say, I was completely psyched to see it! Ah!
It wasn’t flawless and it didn’t reinvent the genre, but The Strangers was solidly scary with above average art direction and surprisingly beautiful cinematography. As the debut feature for writer/director Bryan Bertino (who, by the way, is decidedly sexy himself) it’s really impressive.
One of the awesome things that Bertino does is nearly make you forget you’re about to see a horror movie for the first 20-25 minutes. Instead, Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) are returning to the family summer home after a wedding at which they had somewhat of a falling out. But in the throes of their conflict, they are interrupted by a loud knock. The movie then proceeds to be wholly creepy, with 3 masked strangers (ooh! like the title!) appearing at the house to stalk, scare and torture the couple for the next hour. This hour includes at least 3 really good, well-placed shock moments that made me literally jump out of my seat and either gasp or yell. And I definitely wasn’t the only one in the theatre that was freaked out.
Of course, the movie did suffer from some stereotypical horror movie pitfalls (e.g., me wanting to scream “TURN AROUND!!” or “WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING INTO THE GARAGE??!??”), a few of which were pretty distracting and unrealistic, even in light of the crisis Kristen and James were facing. But between the OMG moments and the dark, neutral, contrastingly pretty cinematography (and pretty Liv Tyler and her disgustingly pretty hair), I had a really good time at The Strangers and hope that Bryan “sexy” Bertino gets to direct something else.
A footnote: supposedly the movie was based on “true events,” and all internet sources (OK, just Wikipedia) point to the Keddie Cabin murders, but this could have just been added by someone who wanted publicity for their Keddie Cabin documentary. I dunno, but that’s a scary story too, so check out the site if you’re morbid like me.