Ah horror. My beloved movie genre. I've loved you since I was a kid, love you more even today despite how far you've fallen. I know it's not your fault. People are steering you in the wrong direction. Choking you with remakes and PG-13 fluff that makes your once grand standing seem like a dust-covered antique lost to the attics of time.
But there is hope it seems. There are some people out there trying to restore you to your glory. One such step in that direction is The Strangers.
The Strangers is the story of a young couple staying at an isolated vacation home who find themselves terrorized by three masked assailants. This is home invasion to the extreme and for the most part The Strangers is successful in its desire to terrify you. It's the knowing that something is coming that is half the fun of this movie. The build-up where we learn about the characters and the troubles they're having only intensifies the fear of what we know is right around the next corner. The first time we see one of the intruders step out of the dark hallway behind one of the characters is a "gasp out loud" freak-out that is all too absent in modern horror. It's one of those perfect moments where you grab the person you're next to and it takes everything to keep from screaming at the screen. It's moments like this that make a good horror film and The Strangers is full of them. The unfortunate thing is that isn't enough to carry a movie.
The performances are fantastic. Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler are fantastic. It's their terror that carries the film and they deliver it admirably. The movie is scary and definitely evokes the right responses out of the viewer. The problem is that it sort of falls apart at the end. As a writer, I can see that this kind of story is very hard to end. A satisfying resolution is extremely difficult to create, especially one that satisfies American audiences. When the movie ends, I felt a bit let down. I think it was the extreme tension of the majority of the movie that sort of sputters out in the end. There is so much build-up and not exactly a lot of payoff. It's hard to go into too much detail without spoiling the ending, which is against my religion.
Overall, The Strangers is an extremely effective horror film that is kept from greatness by a misfire ending. It's absolutely worth the watch if only for the extreme freak-out moments.
Now, let's discuss the DVD. It's light on special features. It only contains deleted scenes and a featurette called "The Elements of Terror." I would have hoped for a bit more. They are billing the disc as two movies in one. I guess this is because the theatrical and the unrated version of the film is on one disc. The unrated version is two minutes longer than the theatrical. Honestly, I didn't watch the theatrical version so I can't tell you what the difference was but I can say that it can't be that different. The unrated version isn't particularly gory so I don't really know what they are referring to. Movies like the Saw series are ten times as gory as The Strangers and they're rated R. This new trend of unrated versions seems more like an excuse to double-dip than an actual artistic choice. Thankfully, with this disc you get both versions together for the same price.
Halloween is next week so if you're looking for a good horror movie to watch with your friends, The Strangers certainly fits the bill. It's not a perfect movie by any means but its the step us horror fans were waiting for to start bringing horror back to being scary and not pandering to teenagers with money in their pockets. Check it out.
Just make sure you keep your doors locked.
The Strangers is on DVD and Blu-ray now.
RAWR(for more)
