The Strangers (2008)

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Unfortunately I fell into the latter. I am late to the party having never watched it before but wanted to get an idea of what it was about before seeing The Strangers: Prey at Night. I honestly couldn't get on board with the two, miserable main characters and the pace, intended to build suspense; just built boredom in me. When the killers did make their prescence known it still didn't really amount to much. The main chunk of the film I watched in 2x speed just to get it over with quickly. Everything seems to happen slowly, solid 10-20 second shots of the sad female character standing at the porch. Another 30 seconds of the downtrodden male character breathing heavily and creeping to the obviously battered car. Maybe the scenes didn't last that long but I just got so bored throughout it felt like forever. Many would have turned off I guess but I wanted to get to the end in case the sequel had any ties.When it did finally reach its dull climax I almost felt happy for the couple. They apparently lived such sad and somber lives that it felt like they were being put out of their misery. An act of mercy from the killers to both the couple and the audience putting and end to their lives and this film.

Kinda slow, and quiet too. Best parts are the masks. That being said you can see where American Horror Story got alot of their stuff from. Specially Cult. Very average movie though.

Great actors! Great scenario!... I'm not really convinced by the direction.

I was so looking forward to watching this again, it had been years. I remember this being superbly scary. Now, this really didn't affect me and found it had too many flaws for it to be classed as a good horror film. It's inspired by the true events of a couple returning to their summer house and being terrorised but three masked strangers. That's literally all this is. There is no reasoning for targeting this couple in the first place other than "because you were home". It just lacked certainty and reasoning. I know that's the point of this film, a random attack where the film depicts only the events of the night. This is a fictionalised story based on true events, it would not have hurt to have some backstory on both the couple and the strangers just to add that much required layer of interest. I appreciated the realism, I liked the small environment and I loved the concept of tormenting your victims before actually ending their lives (I'm sane, honest!). However, when the characters have the emotion depth of a lamp post, it means nothing. I didn't care for their fates at all. Liv Tyler was extremely weak in this, her scared acting skills were unbelievably dull. Scream all you want, doesn't make you a good actress. Scott Speedman was fine I guess. The physical presence of the strangers were menacing and I found many of the jump scares were effective, even if they were just loud noises. Suspense and tension were maintained throughout, probably because I had to turn up the damn volume as the voice track was so flipping quiet! What was that about!? Had to turn up the sound bar to 36! That's madness. For all it's technical excellence in the horror genre, The Strangers lacks that connection which makes us invested into the film. Oh and that ending, really? You're going to conclude on a jump scare? I don't care anymore.