HOLLLLYY SHIT


I just got back from a Thursday, midnight showing of The Strangers and I haven't been that on the edge of my seat in a long time...if ever. The suspense was so much that it practically hurt and had the whole audience squirming. I was jumping out of my seat and squiggling like a little school girl. At one point I got the shivers and my teeth started chattering. I should be ashamed of my self but I wasn't the only one. Grown men were hopping up and grabbing on to the girls. lol. At the end of the movie I had to shake off all the frazzled nerves. the audience made this movie fun. everyone's reaction to everything was amazing to experience.
It was actually scary.
FOR HORROR MOVIE FANS THIS MOVIE IS A MUST. I can not recommend it enough.
This was a great movie no doubt but I didn't realize the effect it had on me till the drive home. This was a midnight showing that didn't let out til just before 2am so the streets were completely deserted. I kept imagining The Strangers standing in the middle of the road, dead still. lol. I wonder what the drive home will be like for a person living in a rural place alone.
this movie seriously gave me the creeps and was so much fun. At least most of it.
SLIGHT SPOILER:
The ending is really Haunting though realistic. It stays with you.
I imagine the movie will be more creepy to watch in your own home.
Everyone go see this this weekend. I don't know if it can beat the crazy fanbase of Sex In The City (which also had a midnight showing) but i hope its successful.
The most successful horror movie so far this year has been the Prom Night Remake which looks like utter shit compared to this movie.
Try not to look anything up on the plot. The less you know, the better.
I wonder if I'll still view this movie so highly after the excitement has died down but right now, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a modern classic. We'll See.
I'm going to bed with the lights on tonight....just kidding.

-SHAWN

Creepy. That is the word that best describes "The Strangers". It is the best horror film so far this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see keep its title the entire year.

Let me get one thing out of the way right now, "The Strangers" is not original. It is just another home invasion movie like "Funny Games" and "The Last House on the Left". However, it is only a minor flaw.

Now that the negatives are out of the way... This is the scariest movie I've ever seen. Period. Never before have I witnessed such suspense. This movie made me jump and scream like a school girl numerous times.

Liv Tyler and Scott Speedmen dish out great perfomances. They really made their characters seem real and it really added to the film. The three villians are truely haunting. Justtheir onscreen presence is enough to make you shiver.

Overall, this is a great horror film. If you wanna see non-stop gore, wait for Saw 5. If you wanna be scared... see "The Strangers".

~Zack~

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Is Tamara Home"


*shudders*



I hope the script for this is posted soon. I'd love to read it.

I read the script. It was pretty good up until the ending, then I felt the entire thing was pointless.

I want to see the movie, but I don't think they've changed the ending, and that's keeping me from shelling out ten bucks. I'll wait for DVD.

Quoted from Zack It is the best horror film so far this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see keep its title the entire year.

I see you still have yet to see Frontier(s).

In regards to the topic, a friend of mine wants to see this so we're going to check it out tomorrow. I'll be back to comment.

Quoted from James McClung I see you still have yet to see Frontier(s).

I own "Frontier(s)". "The Strangers" is a better horror film. Period. "Frontier(s)" is good and all, but it's not scary. "The Strangers" IS.

~Zack~

I guess I don't judge a horror movie's quality based on its scare factor. The only horror movie that genuinely scares me to date is Pet Semetary, which is not one of the best horror movies there is, even though it's very good. I'm glad to hear good things about this one though. I don't like to dish out cash to watch horror movies in theaters in fear of contributing money to studios to make more shit. This doesn't sound like shit though so I'm pretty optimistic at the moment.

Quoted from Zack I own "Frontier(s)". "The Strangers" is a better horror film. Period. "Frontier(s)" is good and all, but it's not scary. "The Strangers" IS. ~Zack~

I thought Frontier(s) was pretty average. I probably would've liked it more but my expectations were REALLY high. The Strangers is the better movie.
I don't think the ending is pointless. I think its more realistic and makes it more scary.

Quoted from Shawnkjr I don't think the ending is pointless. I think its more realistic and makes it more scary.

I couldn't agree more. I loved the ending. I'm very happy that the filmmakers didn't settle for a Hollywood ending.

~Zack~

I read Roger Ebert's Review... and i saw the trailer... not sure!

Here what he says:

By Roger Ebert

My mistake was to read the interview with the director. At the beginning of my review of "The Strangers," I typed my star rating instinctively: "One star." I was outraged. I wrote: "What a waste of a perfectly good first act! And what a maddening, nihilistic, infuriating ending!" I was just getting warmed up.

And then, I dunno, I looked up the movie on IMDb and there was a link to an interview with Bryan Bertino, the film's writer and director, and I went there, read it and looked at his photo. He looked to be in his 20s. This was his first film. Bertino had been working as a grip on a peanuts-budget movie when he pitched this screenplay to Rogue Pictures and then was asked to direct it. He gave a friend his grip tools and thought: "Cool, I'm never going to need this anymore! I'm never using a hammer again." Then he told the interviewer: "I still had to buy books on how to direct."

So I thought, Bryan Bertino is a kid, this is his first movie, and as much as I hate it, it's a competent movie that shows he has the chops to be a director. So I gave it 1.5 stars instead of one.

Still harsh, yes. I think a lot of audience members will walk out really angry at the ending, although it has a certain truthfulness and doesn't cheat on the situation that has been building up. The movie deserves more stars for its bottom-line craft, but all the craft in the world can't redeem its story.

Yes, Bertino can direct. He opens on a dark night in a neighborhood of deserted summer homes, with two people in a car. These are Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman). They are coming from a wedding reception. They go inside James' summer home. We learn that he proposed to her, but she "isn't ready." The camera focuses on a 33-rpm turntable, which, along with their Volvo, are the easiest two props I can imagine to create a 1970s period look.

I am intrigued by these people. Will they talk all night? Will they do things they'll regret forever? Will they ... there is a knock on the door! Not the sound of a human hand, hitting wood. The sound of something hard, hitting wood. It is very loud, and it echoes. To evoke an infinitely superior film, it creates the same sense of alarm and danger as the planks do, banging against each other in "Le Fils" ("The Son") by the Dardenne brothers.

They open the door and find a young girl. They tell her she has the wrong house. She goes and stands in the yard. And then, all night long, their sense of security is undercut by more knocks, breaking glass, scraping, smashing. The soundtrack is the third protagonist. After a time, Bertino creates an empty space in one of his compositions, and it attracts a... figure... that casually fills it, wearing a mournful, shroud-like mask. We will see the mask again. Also two figures wearing little doll masks that are not sweet, but ominous. We recall the opening credits telling us, "this film is inspired by true events." Never a good sign.

Is "The Strangers" inspired by other movies? Asked by Moviesonline.ca if he was influenced "by the film" (never named), Bertino answers, as only someone young and innocent could answer: "I don't necessarily think that I looked at it, you know." The necessarily is a masterstroke. He adds: "I'm definitely influenced by like '70s genre stuff in general, structure-wise." Bertino adds: "I read Helter Skelter when I was like 11. That was where I first started getting interested in the idea of people just walking into a house that you didn't know. I lived in the middle of nowhere in Texas where you could call out in the middle of the night and nobody would hear you."

There have been great movies about home invasion, like "In Cold Blood," that made more of it than gruesome "events." "The Strangers" is a well-shot film (the cinematographer is the veteran Peter Sowa). It does what it sets out to do. I'm not sure that it earns the right to do it. Bertino shows the instincts of a good director; I hope he gets worthier material.

It's a melancholy fact that he probably couldn't have found financing if his first act had lived up to its promise. There's a market for the kind of movie that inspires the kinds of commercials and trailers that "The Strangers" inspires, ending with a chilling dialogue exchange:

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"Because you were home."

Back from The Strangers. Decent flick. Better than expected. Still prefer Frontier(s) but that's just my personal taste. Anyway, I'm going to had to mirror the comments about how suspenseful the film was. It really had it down, especially in terms of sound and timing. The scene with Liv Tyler in the pantry was almost unbearable towards the end. I also thought the ending was well done. It's good to see a growing tolerance in the mainstream for darker endings. Strong performances and character development as well. Overall, I'd say this one's worth a look.

I really enjoyed this, these days when major studio horror consists of "Saw 72", and the indie film market is just gore as well, it's nice to see a horror film that is built around suspense and dread ( as well as a helping of gore).

The film critic for one of the local TV stations savaged it, complaining that there was no motivation for what happened, and I had to laugh. That's a classic example of people wanting to be spoon fed every bit of rhyme & reason. Not every story needs to spell out motivation...evil exists and most times it exists for no reason. It can be scarier if we don't know...if it's a mystery..or if the evil is really as mundane as "because you're home".

A good, tight thriller. Recommended.

I thought the scares were cheap, but worked. There was no real build up, just a lot of little scares.

The movie could've been a lot better. There was no character development. Not real plot. The only real movie was in the beginning, but I didn't really care.

There was no real emotion, besides fear. I didn't care if they lived or died. I didn't care about the bad guys.

I screamed the entire way through, though.

Quoted from ABennettWriter The movie could've been a lot better. There was no character development. Not real plot.

The entire first act was about Liv Tyler's character rejecting this guy's marriage proposal. Basically 100% exposition. Character development was definitely there. Whether or not it was up to snuff is another discussion but its existence isn't really debatable.

As for no real plot, I think that's a fair statement. More of a scenario, really.

I'm with James... I thought the two main characters were pretty well developed, especially Tyler's. I felt so bad for her.

I disagree about the plot. There is one, it is just kept as simple as possible. Three mysterious masked maniacs terrorize a troubled vacationing couple.

~Zack~

While watching the movie I couldn't help but think if the script had been written by a board member and posted here, it would have been torn to pieces.

No foreshadowing ( they didn't meet and piss off someone at the party earlier, someone who then had a grudge and came for payback) and no motivation ( no scene where the guy mumbles though his flour sack about WHY he's terrorizing the couple).

The plot is there it's just not a standard 3 act structure, no final act where the couple turns the tables. Act one is all character, act 2 is the attack.

But still for me it was a well made, suspenseful thriller. I like how it tapped into what for many people is a basic fear or dread, the home invasion - the POUNDING on the door in the middle of the night. That was unnerving.

The first act is pretty much useless. I would've loved to see the party, and then them go home. The way it was presented doesn't do anything for me.

I didn't care if either one lived or died. There was no reason for me to care about any of it. That's why I don't like tihs movie.

One of the girls does say their motivation: "You were home".

It's something, but not enough.

I also thought it was very, very predictable. Of course the guy was gonna shoot the other guy!

LOL! Shooting his friend had to happen. It completely shot the characters' nerves and made them make some horrible decisions. Basically, I think it's accurate to say that it "opened the door" for the killers to off 'em.

I agree the characters were not developed enough, but I liked the way it was done for two reasons: 1. It's a hell of a lot more character developent than we will EVER get in a Horror movie recently released, and 2. Presenting it as subtly as they did never broke the silent, gloomy atmosphere of the movie.

I think the film did an amazing job at building suspense. I did not think the scares were cheap. Sure, they were "BOO!" scares--but they're not cheap if they're well-done. The movie actually built suspense and released it little by little perfectly to the point where every scare worked. Those are not cheap scares. It is a sign of excellent writing/directing. Unfortunately, the plot had to be sacrificed. This is because the suspense is intensified if we remain in a single location throughout the whole film.  

The film had next-to-no plot, but it was unnerving and scary. Would you prefer it if had next-to-no-plot and was a turd at the same time?

As for the motive, I liked it a lot. Instead of some cheesy "I am your brother's cousin's cousin and I killed you because (insert silly reason here)!" ending, it kept it simple and, with a single line of dialogue, made the entire thing work.

ABS, I know "Because you were home" was not enough of a motive. But seriously, did you ever stop to think if the psychopaths actually *cared* if they had enough of a reason to do what they did? Hell no! The couple here was as confused as you are. Which brings me to another point of excellence in this film--the movie is told ENTIRELY from the couple's point of view (except that one bit  with the friend, which was used to move the film further).  What they don't know, we don't know.  

Quoted from ReaperCreeper The film had next-to-no plot, but it was unnerving and scary. Would you prefer it if had next-to-no-plot and was a turd at the same time? As for the motive, I liked it a lot. Instead of some cheesy "I am your brother's cousin's cousin and I killed you because (insert silly reason here)!" ending, it kept it simple and, with a single line of dialogue, made the entire thing work. ABS, I know "Because you were home" was not enough of a motive. But seriously, did you ever stop to think if the psychopaths actually *cared* if they had enough of a reason to do what they did? Hell no! The couple here was as confused as you are. Which brings me to another point of excellence in this film--the movie is told ENTIRELY from the couple's point of view (except that one bit  with the friend, which was used to move the film further).  What they don't know, we don't know.

Actually, "because you're home" is enough motive.
Take the horrid example  of Rob Zombie, who took the brilliant, mysterious. frightening "boogeyman" of Michael Myers , who had no motivation, who was simply pure evil personified in Carpenter's Halloween, and developed a ridiculous back story for Myers in his remake to attempt to explain WHY Myers is what he is. Why the need to explain? Of course, Zombie isn't the best example since he's a horrid writer anyway, but the point is the same.

Some things happen with no motive. We see it in life. There are mindless pointless killings. There are thrill killings that happen for no reason other than the joy of the act. The simple line " because you're home" is infinately more chilling than taking half a page of dialogue to toss out some rationalization. And Like you said , the story is told from the couple's point of view, so we don't get to hear any motive there may be.

This isn't an approach that is going to work every time. You have to have the right story told the right way. Then it can work.

In the end, the movie clicks for some people and not others.

Is there anybody on this thread who has seen BOTH "Strangers" and the French film, "Ils"?

I have not made up my mind about seeing this  -- because the more I read, the more it sounds like a total rip-off.

Is there somebody out there who can give me a comparison?

That's been an ongoing semi debate it seems. The official word is that The Strangers was written in 2004 ( the first draft in Oct 04) and sold to Rogue at that time, with the writer hired to direct in '06. That would make it highly unlikely if not impossible for it to be a rip off of "Ils (Them)"  ( which supposedly wasn't ever shown in the U.S. until 2007) although they are alike it seems.

The Strangers was shot in Oct 2006, so it would be a huge rush to write, submit, get a green light and rush into production after seeing a foreign film from the same year.

Also the movie sat on the shelf for a long time, being originally touted for release in mid early-mid 2007.

So it seems to be a huge coincidence.

They share a lot of similarities, but there is no twist in The Strangers at all. I don't think they ripped each other off--it seems, like Mike said, that it was just a huge coincidence. But the fact remains that they ARE pretty similar.

--Julio

I watched "Them" last night, and from what I've read about "The Strangers", the only similarities between them is that they're about two people in a house being terrorized.

"Them" didn't seem to be too big on character development either, and on the whole I found it to be rather "blah".  I'm curious to know what the twist in "Them" is supposed to be, though.  If it's what I think it is, I wouldn't really call that a twist.

Quoted from Shelton I'm curious to know what the twist in "Them" is supposed to be, though.  If it's what I think it is, I wouldn't really call that a twist.

Spoiler for "Ils"




It is the age of those who are terrorizing the couple.  But yes, the way they handle it, it is more of a "revelation" than a real "twist".

After wathcing it, I thought they could have done much more with that particular angle than they did.  Had they really explioted that, it might have made for a more interesting film.

A movie isn't real life. I watch the news. Real life sucks.

This movie would be a lot better if it said something about our culture - about this random thrill killings. It doesn't. He just puts it out there. There's no theme, no truth, no anything. Just these events that are "based on a true story", which is just lazy. People take the "ripped fromthe headlines" approach all the time, but they still manage to say something. They make a statement.

I'm not saying all movies should have some life changing, mountain moving theme. But I want to get something out of a movie. Something that makes me think. This movie would've been a great way to say something about the world we live in, where people just randomly kill other people. Sure, this movie is shocking and scary and it throws one of my biggest fears in my face, but what's behind that?

I predict this movie will be forgotten a year after the DVD comes out. It's superficial and pointless.

Quoted from ABennettWriter It's superficial and pointless.

This is how I felt after reading the screenplay.

I'd like to see a good home invasion movie that doesn't take place in Saskatoon. Most people going to see these movies live ten feet next door to someone, and those people have a neighbor on the other side, and so on... and so on...

In Hollywood horror movies, everyone seems to live way down in Bum Fuck Egypt. How are we supposed to relate to that?

Quoted from Sham I'd like to see a good home invasion movie that doesn't take place in Saskatoon.

Funny Games.

Quoted from James McClung Funny Games.

And Extremities!

Quoted from Shelton And Extremities!

Ooh. I remember Extremities. I'm gonna go watch it right now. Thanks for reminding me of it.

So, I was pretty excited for this movie, hoping that I'd go to get creeped out, scared, sit at the edge of my seat towards the end of the movie.

I was wrong. And I feel jipped.

It started out really cheesy with the whole voice over deal. I mean, WE CAN READ. We're not stupid. Yeh, the voice should make it scarier, but it didn't. My friends and I were laughing at the beginning when he was talking. Then when the movie actually began, I started to get bored because there was nothing happening and they were just standing there crying and being quiet, and I was like, "Wow, you're boring."

Then when "the strangers" came in I was like, "Good, now we get to see some action."

Yet again, I was disappointed.

Most of it was just walking into the house, staring at a chick, and disappearing as they turn around. That got extremely tiring after a while because that's all they were doing. Then once they finally actually started to chase the people around, you know, mess with them a bit more hardcore...ly, it was still really boring because nothing actually had happened.

Then the ending was nearing, and I wasn't at the edge of my seat. I wasn't shaking. I didn't feel any sympathy for the characters. I wasn't scared. Then they died. And I was like, "Is that it?? I sat here for an hour and a half FOR THAT??!??" I felt really ripped off. They led me on, and ended it with a giant flop.

So in a nutshell, and in my opinion, this movie is a boring, very, very slow, quiet, non-creepy, predictable piece of work that lasts for an hour and a half and didn't even come to satisfy the scare I wanted when I walked into the theater. I would like to have my hour and a half back so I am going to save that for The Happening which I hope will not be a disappointment like this movie. And it's just as bad since I had to sit through that trailer for QUARANTINED. People actually said that that movie looked good. I really wanted to stand up in the theater after that and tell them that it is a remake and that they should take a look at the original first and then think about seeing that movie. But I'll save that for another thread.

The only thing that actually scared me about this film was the fact that stuff like this actually happens.

Sean

So I've been meaning to check this one out for a while, but I never got around to it last night until they showed it on late night TV. Overall, I wasn't all that disappointed, but mostly because I wasn't really expecting anything great.

The idea of this movie is quite cool, a young couple is terrorised by a trio of maniacs simply because they happened to be home. That idea I like. It reminded me a bit of Duel, the Steven Spielberg movie, which operates on a similar notion. A man in a car is terrorised by a guy in a massive truck for no other reason that he happened to overtake the truck driver. It becomes a deadly game of cat-and-mouse filled with Hitchcockian suspense and some great driving sequences. I was hoping this movie would have something like that going for it, but it took a cool idea and turned it into the most obvious and least imaginative film that could've been made from the idea.

I have a theory about horror films, that they should actually be horrific. Something like The Exorcist or the original Halloween were actually horrific movies, even smething like Salo or Martyrs has the same effect, though for a different reason. Every day in the world we go out, we go to work or to school, we see our friends, go out with our girlfriends/boyfriends, we do what normal people do and we are relatively confident that we are safe and that nothing will happen to us. There's usually a very small, nagging suspicion that we're not going to be, but by a large most days, in most places, we are safe. A great horror film preys on this suspicion and turns it into full-blown paranoia. A great horror film should make us reconsider just how safe we are in this world, how safe we are in our own skins. It should take that feeling of being safe and secure and, for a little while at least, make it seem ridiculous that in such an unpredictable, ugly world that we could ever be safe. This movie didn't do that. When I went to sleep after watching this movie, I wasn't any more afraid of this actually happening to me than I would've been had I not seen it. And that was disappointing.

Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are also pretty unconvincing as a married couple. There are no sparks or sense of actual love between them. And by the time the film ends they're both pretty much playing one note, and it's completely flat. Neither of them seemed to be particularly bothered by being stabbed. Frankly, Liv Tyler seemed more frightened when she was crawling through the grass and running. If it were me, I would be less scared of being hunted and more scared of being gutted. But that's just me. Also the writing in Liv Tyler's character is pretty weak (a common and unfortunate problem among male writers). You can tell this movie was made by a man because it's Speedman who gets not only scared but also pissed off that this is happening to him, whereas Tyler is just the scared, helpless damsel from beginning to end. Guarenteed if Sofia Coppola or Rose Troche had made this movie, she would've had a lot more to do than just scream or cry. I'm getting pretty tired of women being treated so shabbily in movies, even if it's only subtle, as in this one.

Like I said the main problem with this is that it doesn't seem like this writer/director was really trying all that much. He took a great idea and made it into an okay movie. He took the most conventional route he could've taken with a pretty unconventional idea and it's a pity. Because this movie could have been truly frightening. As it is, it's just a pretty okay thriller. Some nice ideas, some scary moments. But nothing special.

Sorry for dragging up an old thread. But I thought I may as well throw in my piece.