The cumulative effect of unexpected knocks at the door, creaking floors, shadows, noises and strange happenings is a heart-pounding experience
The Strangers (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:142
Fresh:63
Rotten:79
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: The Strangers provides a few scares, but offers little else to distinguish itself from other slasher films.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
US Box Office: $52,534,295
Synopsis: For his film debut, director Brian Bertino has crafted a fantastically creepy horror flick based on the very simple premise of strangers who come knocking late at night. Kristen (Liv Tyler) and... For his film debut, director Brian Bertino has crafted a fantastically creepy horror flick based on the very simple premise of strangers who come knocking late at night. Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) have arrived at a secluded vacation home in the woods after attending a friend's wedding. It's four in the morning, and they're both tearful and emotionally exhausted after a disagreement about their relationship. As they awkwardly try to navigate the long night together, they are distracted by the sound of a heavy knock at the door. They open it to find a dazed young woman hidden in the shadows. Assuming she is lost, James sends her away, but Kristen is disturbed by the late-night visit. When James leaves to go on a drive and pick up some cigarettes, Kristen is left alone, and we watch her move through the huge house in a painfully eerie silence, all the while knowing that she is being watched. By the time James returns, Kristen is in hysterics, and together they must face the terrifying fact that they are indeed in grave danger. Both Tyler and Speedman give excellent, understated performances that lend the film a truly frightening edge of realism. The story's simplicity is a refreshing change from over-the-top torture films like SAW, and the violence in the film is minimal, and much of it off camera. THE STRANGERS also lacks any big-budget special effects. You won't find any CGI creatures or armies of zombies. The only monsters depicted here are the very real human kind, which is what leaves you thoroughly spooked and shaken, and ready to push a chair against your own front door. [More]
Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks
Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton, Alex Fisher, Peter Clayton-Luce
Director: Bryan Bertino
Director: Bryan Bertino
Screenwriter: Bryan Bertino
Producer: Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
Composer: Tomandandy
Studio: Rogue Pictures
Reviews for The Strangers
The film's most potent claim to success is its lengthy and cleverly edited stretches of spookiness, which it tends to extend to almost breaking point, keeping us in heightened suspense.
The momentum Bertino builds up over the course of the movie is deflated by an ending that doesn't match the rest of the film.
A mediocre scare show that just happened to have one of the best trailers of recent times. At two minutes, The Strangers is terrifying; at eighty-five, it's lackluster.
It wrings ever drop of terror it can out of making us identify with doomed people, and suffering as they suffer. That might be nihilistic, but it's also empathetic.
If you're a fan of the genre, The Strangers provides all the shocks and scares you could possibly want.
There’s little that distinguishes this movie’s basic plot from scores of other fright films over the decades, but The Stranger is more effective than most because of [director] Bertino’s deft manipulation of the storyteller’s tools.
As an exercise in controlled mayhem, horror movies don't get much scarier.
Opening against Sex and the City, it's counterprogramming that runs counter to any sane notion of art or entertainment.
A fine throwback, and one filled with moments of real suspense. In spite of its rushed, awkward ending, I'd take this any day over the Saw movies, and all that came in their wake.
The real problem is that there's absolutely nothing original here and it's obvious they tried to take what works and recycle it.
[Director] Bertino has the pretensions of an artist and the indelicacy of a hack. He tries to get under our skin with a pile driver.
A retread of just about every home-invasion movie of the past 50 years mixed with elements of torture porn and chick-flick romance.
Strangers is 80 minutes of screen stillness; a suspense picture powered by directorial incompetence and behavioral idiocy...a pile of tasteless genre garbage.
A lean, effective little exercise in scares. It offers nothing new but is perfect for breaking the ice on a first date.
Speedman remains comatose, though Tyler flickers fitfully to life. The mournful look on her face suggests she's remembering the days when she was given more psychologically complex scripts, such as Armageddon.
There's nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early 70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy.
The movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story.
Anchored by convincing performances from Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler, both of whom elevate their roles above the standard horror-movie caricature, this is an enormously unsettling movie.
Latest News for The Strangers
August 28, 2008:
Rogue Eager to Meet More Strangers ![]()
Rogue Pictures has greenlighted a sequel to the Liv Tyler horror movie "The Strangers," and hired the original's writer/director, Bryan Bertino, to pen the script. More...
June 05, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Black vs. Sandler in Comedy Showdown
Two big doses of comedy from a pair of Hollywood's funniest men will hit the multiplexes across North America on Friday in a fierce battle for the number one spot. For family... More...
May 29, 2008:
Box Office Guru Preview: Sex in the Multiplex All Weekend Long
This weekend a quartet of New York City gals will try to boot Indiana Jones out of the number one spot at the North American box office as the much-hyped comedy Sex and the City... More...
May 29, 2008:
Critical Consensus: Sex and the City Will Please Fans
This week at the movies, we've got love and commerce (Sex and the City: The Movie, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall) and romantic getaways gone wrong (The... More...
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