*** Official THE STRANGERS Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[ChrisBEA]

I really liked this movie.

From my review:
There is something about this movie that gets under your skin. It is more than the fact that someone is breaking into your home, more than the fear of the dark, it is the way everything builds up. The fact that the attack is random, with no personal connections or genuine reason for it, it is terribly frightening.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Thought it was decent.

though i hated how the opening narriator pretty much told you that speedman/tylers characters die

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The Strangers". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy

 

[WadeM]

This gets my vote for the worst movie of the year.

The level of incompetence and downright stupidity thrown into this movie is the highest I've seen in a long time. Let's see, cliches like "a hand touches someone when no one is there" run throughout this movie, but what makes it really stupid is that the audience knows that hand belongs to a real person! How can someone touch your neck and you turn around and no one is there? Again, that person isn't a ghost, but a regular person! How can she disappear like that?
Idiocy!!

The ending was also extremely cliched, and not only made me roll my eyes, but there were audible "give me a break!" comments from the audience. It was stupid, and predictable.

Then there's the cliched "let's make a loud noise to make people jump because I'm so incompetent that I don't know any other way to scare anyone" joke that runs throughout the movie. If you want to know how to do that right, then watch the original Cat People, which is the movie that invented that idea. You don't just throw loud noises out there for no reason--it needs to be coordinated with what's actually going on and be realistic within the context of the fantasy given.

I can't say enough bad things about this movie. It was so forgettable that I had forgotten that I had even seen this movie until I saw this thread. It was a waste of time and money and I'm surprised that I didn't walk out before it was done.

A little bit better, albeit, not much more intelligent movie is Them, which is extremely similar to this movie, and was released first. If you must watch one or the other, then do yourself a favor, and choose Them. The mood is better in that movie, but again, even that one still needed more brainpower, and lacked originality.

 

[TravisR]

I really enjoyed it and thought it was one of the scarier movies I've seen in a long time. There's some BS jump scares with music stings and the characters have some lapses in logic so the story can move forward but it manages to be pretty scary for the entire movie (and I can't really think of many movies that I can say that about) so I can forgive them. The only thing that I didn't like was the Carrie scare at the end whenLiv Tyler grabs the kid.

You can tell that the director is a big fan of the original Halloween since the bad guy 'floats' into the background of shots while another character is in focus.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Strangers, The (2008) :star::star::star: Bryan Bertino

Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler play a young couple who go to a house in the middle of nowhere after the wedding of their friend. The couple show up at the house in a rather depressed mood as Tyler turned down Speedman's proposal, which certainly wasn't the plan. Soon, a man and two young girls, wearing masks, show up for no apparent reason and chaos breaks out as the young couple must fight for the lives. I'm really mixed about this movie and I'm torn between a two and a half star rating or a three but I went on with the three star rating since the film, while flawed, still has a lot going for it to where I would recommend it to any horror fan. If you've ever seen a Wes Craven interview he always talks about how to build suspense and he says one of the keys is to not let the suspense go on for too long without delivering something because the audience will start to not care about the "jump" if the suspense is played out. I think that is one problem with this film because director Bertino builds up some very suspenseful scenes yet a lot of them have a weak payoff due to us waiting for something. There are a few logical problems along the way but for the most part I thought this was one of the better horror films I've seen in recent years. Unlike the recent torture/porn movies, this one here really doesn't feature that much blood and instead tries to deliver the scares and for the most part is does that just fine. A few of the build up shocks don't work but this is to be expected in any horror film. The film also seems to have really been influenced by the original Halloween as there are several nods to that film including the white mask appearing out of a dark room, although the scene here really doesn't work. There's been all sorts of controversy over the ending and there is a major logical flaw here but for the most part I didn't mind it. I'm sure some will feel cheated but I'm really not sure what about. The ending is rather ugly and disturbing but horror doesn't have to be clean and pretty all the time.

 

[Shad R]

This movie was so bad. The characters are so dumb! I jumped once, and the scene when they first get into the house is pretty terrifying, but after that, it's just a series of shots and pans stolen from better movies. I'd give this a D.

 

[Alex...]

Holy mega thread bump, Batman.

3 new sequels incoming...

https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclu...e-sequels-in-production-next-month-exclusive/

 

[Malcolm R]

It took them 10 years to get the first sequel out. At least they're working faster on these.

I liked the original, didn't care much for the sequel.

 

[Alex...]

Renny Harlin may be directing one, or all of the sequels.


https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclu...recting-all-three-upcoming-sequels-exclusive/

 

[Alex...]