The usual stupidness ensues. “Stay here darling with the axe-wielding psychos while I go and get help,” says Speedman. Ugh.
The Strangers (2008)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
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
A lean, effective little exercise in scares. It offers nothing new but is perfect for breaking the ice on a first date.
This suspense film by first-time writer-director Bryan Bertino initially squeezes some surprisingly effective scares out of familiar elements. Sadly, the scenario quickly becomes attenuated and unbelievable.
An effective, scary emotional work-out, but perhaps you can have too much paranoid despair.
Bertino does not try to understand his strangers. His primary interest is what happens - the details of crime - as if the film were a dramatised tabloid.
so well made, so moody and tense, that its emptiness can almost be overlooked - but if you want something a little more than a po-faced thrill ride, best look elsewhere
This film does not have the shock value of many other horror films, which was a pleasant surprise for my taste. It is scary in the sense that this could this really happen.
After building a jangling sense of terror, Bertino doesn't take it anywhere.
This is straight-up nightmare fuel, unredeemed by compelling characters or interesting motives.
The Strangers bears more than a passing resemblance to Them, the French horror film about a couple in a secluded house who are stalked by mysterious, almost supernatural tormenters.
Offers no more enlightenment or catharsis than a drugged insect could expect in the moment before it is skewered by a lepidopterist's pin.
... The work of a born filmmaker who shows a remarkable command of tone and pace. It is a new classic in its genre ...
How bad is a stalker/killer flick when it's just as lame whether the victims live or die? All suspense and no payoff doesn't look clever, just lazy.
The Strangers gets your hopes up with some smart filmmaking but then pretty much dashes them by the final predictable fade out.
This movie is far from great, but it did scare the heck out of me quite a few times. I have to give it props for that.
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.
It's creepy and at times frightening, but it fails in the most important aspect of the genre - it's not at all entertaining.
A brutal little thriller with no intentions other than to scare us. And in many instances, it succeeds...
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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