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A Passion For Horror
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The Strangers (2008) Directed
By
Bryan Bertino
'According to the FBI, there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11th, 2005, Kristen McKay and James Hoyt left 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.' The film begins with a 911 call placed by a young boy who has wandered into the Hoyt residence and found the carnage left there. He tells the operator that there is blood everywhere and so, right from the beginning, the viewer is aware that The Strangers is not going to have a happy ending. The next scene shows Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) returning from the aforementioned wedding reception and they both appear to be shell-shocked. James has proposed to Kristen, she has turned him down, and he is taking it hard.  When
they
arrive home it becomes apparent that James, not anticipating rejection,
has tried to make the occasion as special as possible for her. The
floor is carpeted with red rose petals, as is much of the furniture,
and the table is set for a champagne supper by candlelight. James suppers alone and, while Kristen takes a bath, he indulges in a spot of comfort eating and consoles himself with a big fat tub of ice cream. When Kristen comes back downstairs the atmosphere is tense  for
a while, but then the couple seem to be close to making up. So close,
in fact, that James has already helped Kristen out of her knickers. The
moment is lost though, when they are interrupted by a knock at the
door. It is 04:05; a little early for visitors, but James answers the
door anyway and finds a young blond girl standing on the step. Young
and blond is about as much as he or the viewer can tell though, because
the porch lights seem to have mysteriously stopped working. "Is Tamara
here?" she asks him and when James tells her that she has got the wrong
house the girl leaves. Or so it seems. When James takes the car and
goes to buy Kristen a pack of cigarettes, the girl returns: "Is Tamara
here?"  This is the
point where the terror really begins. The girl persists in knocking on
the door and when Kristen rings James on his mobile the house phone
goes dead. No big deal on its own, but the battery in Kristen's cell is
flat and she quickly comes to realize that she is not alone in the
house. It is a while before she sees the intruder, but the viewer is
aware of him much sooner. It is a man with a sack over his head.
Meanwhile the girl continues to bang on the door and is now wearing a
mask. She has brought another friend with her as well, also a girl, and
also wearing a mask.It is not too long before James gets back, but by then the intruders have faded into the background and James appears to think that Kristen is exaggerating. By the time he realizes that she is not it is too late. His car has been trashed and the he and Kristen are trapped. The Strangers is a very scary film and the fact that it is supposedly based on true events adds a little extra edge to the terror. The soundtrack is also extremely effective and I was on the edge of my seat as I listened to the intruders banging about while the record on the player blasted out a rather freaky-sounding tune. At first Kristen and James only get occasional glimpses of their  unwanted
guests and just the sight of them in their various masks is enough to
give any viewer the heebie-jeebies, but it is never very long before
they disappear again and it is twice as scary not to know where they
are. As an example, at one point an injured Kristen is crawling along
the lawn and sees the girl sitting on the swing. She looks away for a
moment, and when she looks back the girl is gone, leaving the swing to
swing alone.The masked maniacs take their time. They obviously enjoy terrorizing their victims and are so confident and competent at it that it looks like they have done it many times before. In the end though, when they have finished playing, and are ready to get down to business, they remove their masks and the fact that have removed them gives a good  idea
of what
is coming next. Kristen and James are tied to chairs. They are going
nowhere. They will identify no one. "Why are you doing this to us,"
Kristen asks and the answer to that question is very scary indeed:
"Because you were home." Everyone needs to feel safe in their home and
the very idea that anyone could be terrorized like this in a place that
should be their sanctuary, and for no real reason at all, is the stuff
of nightmares.I enjoyed watching The Strangers. The terror builds up nicely all the way through the film and rises to a crescendo point at the end. There is, as you might expect a certain amount of blood on display, but not as much as a lot of the more popular slasher films can boast. The guts of this film is the story itself, and the way it is presented is scary enough without the need of any extra offal on display. This is a film, I am sure, that it will make a lot of viewers check their doors and windows more than once before turning in for the night. 
Special Features
CAST Liv
Tyler ... Kristen McKay Glenn Howerton ...
Mike
DVD Information:
Run Time 82
Minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Language English
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