Friday night I finally made it back to a movie theater to see "Prom Night" and while I actually enjoyed it quite a bit (a review will come later on) the scariest part of the night was the trailer for The Strangers.

The Strangers tells the story of a couple, Kristen and James (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman), who come home one night after a wedding and are slowly terrorized by 3 masked strangers. From the preview it looks like the couple are celebrating a recent engagement (or are about to become engaged) as there are rose petals laid out on the bed and candles and champagne set out on the table. But their celebration is interrupted by some strange noises outside.

Then comes the scariest part of the trailer, Kristen standing in her dining room/kitchen area as a man in a mask, made from what looks like a burlap sack, walks into the frame behind her. The man doesn't do anything but stand still and watch her. But the most unnerving part is how long the scene plays. Most trailers cut from scene to scene as quickly as possible, but here it stay on this creepy image for what seems like an eternity, but is really only a few seconds.

Then we see the other 2 masked strangers, who look to be women as they appear and then are gone when the couple turns to look for something. When the couple hears a record playing and go to investigate they see James' cell phone melting in the fire place. They hear more noises and find the word hello written on the inside of one of their windows.

Then an ax crashes through the front door as James stands inches from it, and the trailer kicks into high gear. We see quick cuts of the 3 strangers as they terrorize the couple, chasing them, and finally standing in front of the couple as they sit on the couch (another terrifying scene).

And in the end we get possibly the worst part of the entire trailer. We hear Kristen cry out "Why are you doing this?" and then comes the reply in a female voice "Because you were home" It's terrifying to find out there is no reason to it. Something like this could happen to anyone and for no reason other than because you were home when they stopped by.

If the movie is half as terrifying as the trailer it will be an amazingly frightening movie. I'm hoping to get a chance to see this when it comes out, preferably on opening night with a packed house. And the main reason I'll be going to see it: it's a scary movie that's not torture porn. I love being scared in movies, but the new string of torture porn makes it hard to see any good scary, suspenseful film, because all they're about it grossing people out not scaring you.

Let me know what you think, the trailer is below:

Labels: The Strangers, Trailer Review, Trailers