Morgan Bell
Kynaston
REVIEW: The Strangers
August 21st 2008 06:03
Directed & Written: Bryan Bertino (debut)
Starring: Liv Tyler (Reign Over Me, One Night At McCools, Inventing The Abbotts), Scott Speedman (Duets, The 24th Day, TVs "Felicity"), Glenn Howerton (TVs "Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia")
A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.
This is a very short (only running 85 min) one dimensional horror film which will hold you in suspense and make you jump . . . but once you leave the cinema you will laugh for hours about how stupid the premise was!
I did jump, i jumped many times . . . I held my fingers to my mouth and tensed my body in anticipation . . . the director set out to scare the audience and he did so very effectively - he achieved his brief . . . Liv Tyler's acting is superb creating genuine fear and terror, the film is practically a one man show so her performance was critical and she pulled it off beatifully!
However, I have to point out why this is not a fantastic movie on the whole:
*spoilers below*
*SPOILER ALERT*
I wondered if this film was financed by some kind of home security company or someone with a vested interest in instilling irrational fear into people. I wondered this due to the complete lack of motive that "the strangers" had for their attack. For the bulk of the film you are waiting to see why they have broken in but the only explanation that is given is that it is completely random, they are not robbing the home, they did not know the victims, they toy with the victims for a huge amount of time for no real reason other than to draw out the "cat and mouse" style thrills and spills, they have never killed before, they are not in it to sexually assault or to hold hostage for money. Why? Basically they selected Kristen (Tyler) and James (Speedman) simply because they were home and opened the door. A throw-away line at the end tells us they think it will be easier next time, perhaps it is practise for the sequels?
The attackers, apart from having scary masks, are not really that scary. They are two of the smallest women ive ever seen and a slow-moving guy with some kind of an asthma problem that causes a wheezy sound when he breaths. They come to the property completly unarmed with only the element of surprise on their side and the weapons they find during their cat and mouse game. Liv Tyler has the height of an amazon, James has a shotgun, they have a car and three phones, yet somehow they can not gain control of the situation of over-power these masked pesky pipsqueaks?
The sequence where their friend Mike (Howerton) arrives at the property and continues advancing into the danger of the situation is just ridiculous. If someone smashed your windscreen when you pulled up and you looked down the drive and saw your best friends car on fire, all the windows of the house smashed in and an unknown vehicle in the drive would you really enter? Once inside theres signs of calamity and destruction everywhere yet you just keep advancing? please . . .
And finally, was there any point in the first half hour of character building for Kristen and James? The depth with which their relationship was scrutinised seemed completely redundant once it was revealed that the crime was random. Flashbacks to the dinner table earlier in the evening and Kristen explaining she wants to keep her frilly dress on because it makes her feel pretty . . . seriously . . . was it just padding to draw out the film to be feature length? It was completely irrelevant because it didnt tie into anything!
Starring: Liv Tyler (Reign Over Me, One Night At McCools, Inventing The Abbotts), Scott Speedman (Duets, The 24th Day, TVs "Felicity"), Glenn Howerton (TVs "Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia")
A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.
This is a very short (only running 85 min) one dimensional horror film which will hold you in suspense and make you jump . . . but once you leave the cinema you will laugh for hours about how stupid the premise was!
I did jump, i jumped many times . . . I held my fingers to my mouth and tensed my body in anticipation . . . the director set out to scare the audience and he did so very effectively - he achieved his brief . . . Liv Tyler's acting is superb creating genuine fear and terror, the film is practically a one man show so her performance was critical and she pulled it off beatifully!
However, I have to point out why this is not a fantastic movie on the whole:
*spoilers below*
*SPOILER ALERT*
I wondered if this film was financed by some kind of home security company or someone with a vested interest in instilling irrational fear into people. I wondered this due to the complete lack of motive that "the strangers" had for their attack. For the bulk of the film you are waiting to see why they have broken in but the only explanation that is given is that it is completely random, they are not robbing the home, they did not know the victims, they toy with the victims for a huge amount of time for no real reason other than to draw out the "cat and mouse" style thrills and spills, they have never killed before, they are not in it to sexually assault or to hold hostage for money. Why? Basically they selected Kristen (Tyler) and James (Speedman) simply because they were home and opened the door. A throw-away line at the end tells us they think it will be easier next time, perhaps it is practise for the sequels?
The attackers, apart from having scary masks, are not really that scary. They are two of the smallest women ive ever seen and a slow-moving guy with some kind of an asthma problem that causes a wheezy sound when he breaths. They come to the property completly unarmed with only the element of surprise on their side and the weapons they find during their cat and mouse game. Liv Tyler has the height of an amazon, James has a shotgun, they have a car and three phones, yet somehow they can not gain control of the situation of over-power these masked pesky pipsqueaks?
The sequence where their friend Mike (Howerton) arrives at the property and continues advancing into the danger of the situation is just ridiculous. If someone smashed your windscreen when you pulled up and you looked down the drive and saw your best friends car on fire, all the windows of the house smashed in and an unknown vehicle in the drive would you really enter? Once inside theres signs of calamity and destruction everywhere yet you just keep advancing? please . . .
And finally, was there any point in the first half hour of character building for Kristen and James? The depth with which their relationship was scrutinised seemed completely redundant once it was revealed that the crime was random. Flashbacks to the dinner table earlier in the evening and Kristen explaining she wants to keep her frilly dress on because it makes her feel pretty . . . seriously . . . was it just padding to draw out the film to be feature length? It was completely irrelevant because it didnt tie into anything!
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Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Nice review Morgan - and all true but it's still awesome and scared the shit out of me. LOL
I love reading your stuff when you get worked up.
I have just been invited to interview two lead characters for an upcoming English film and am nervous as all hell just about replying - I might vomit on the celebs at the interview!
Comment by Morgan Bell
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i do like to go off on a tangent sometimes!
horror isnt really my favourite genre but i thought this was similarly scary to The Others or The Sixth Sense, even though there was no great twist that would make this the same calibre.
two english film celebs hmmmm i dont sposed Cillian Murphy and James McAvoy are technically english but im sure you could imagine how gaga i would be if i was interviewing those lads! haha
thanks for the comment!
Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
do Horror movies ever really have a point?? lol. they are usually daft as hell.
Comment by Morgan Bell
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yeah some horror movies are pretty simple plot-wise, but usually they at least give the killer a vendetta, or a supernatural possession, or a split personality, or an overbearing abusive mother, or . . . something! haha
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
He he!!
Comment by Morgan Bell
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man, i would have knocked that asthma guy on his wheezy arse! lol
Comment by Cheryl J
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Plus I love a good scare, although I have to admit most horror movies have me rolling my eyes at the characters' stupidity. I think I'll give this a go.
Maybe asthma man is Darth Vader's second cousin twice removed
Comment by Morgan Bell
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honesty asthma boy could easily be Darth Vaders runty nephew!
its funny but outside of the movies i dont think i have ever heard of a real thrill killer, even people who kill at random (like mass shootings) are usually mentally ill or have been oestracised from the community or retrenched from their job . . . or something!
Comment by Cheryl J
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1993 - Robert Thompson and Jon Venables killed toddler James Bulger. They did it to see what it felt like.
1997 - New Jersey teens Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland ordered a pizza and ambushed the two men who delivered it. After gunning down victims Georgio Gallara and Jeremy Giordano, the teens went bowling. Koskovich and Vreeland later admitted to police that they wanted to experience what it was like to commit murder.
1924, Leopold and Loeb - Richard Loeb was the son of the Vice President of Sears and Roebuck and while he was as wealthy as his friend, Loeb was merely a clever young man. Over the course of four years, they committed robbery, vandalism, arson and petty theft, but this was not enough for Loeb. He dreamed of something bigger. A murder, he convinced his friend, would be their greatest intellectual challenge.
2005 - James Patrick Roughan and his friend Christopher Clark Jones murdered Morgan Jay Shepherd, 17, in Dayboro, near Brisbane, Australia. The pair stabbed the teenager more than 133 times and sawed off his head, which was used as a puppet and bowling ball, according to witnesses. The alcohol-fueled murder was described as a "thrill kill."
For some reason the movies are a fun thrill. The real ones make me sick to my stomach. Amazing the difference we feel about entertainment and reality *shudder*.